Overnight in Sydney, Australia

            Sunday, 3 Mar 2019 – Today was scheduled to be an at-sea day; however, due to a medical emergency with one of the passengers, our arrival in Sydney was moved up by one day; so we would be enjoying an overnight stay in Sydney.  Since Sally had not slept well, we skipped swimming and Sally napped instead.  At about 3:30 PM we arrived in Sydney.   Since we arrived on Sunday, Jesse decided that we should try to attend Mass.  We spent a few days in Sydney previously, and thought we knew the area, especially near the port, quite well.  In 2014, we had attended St. Patrick’s Church, which was only a short walk from the cruise terminal.

We left the ship at about 5:00 PM and started walking.  However, at 6:00 PM, we finally reached the end of the pier, and St. Patrick’s was nowhere in sight; then we headed back to the ship.  We later found out that the ship was docked at an entirely different location than our ship in 2014!  (The scenery did look different to us, but we thought it might look familiar if we could walk far enough.)  Other friends, Richard and Kathleen, had made it to the 6:00 PM Mass by taking a shuttle and were sorry that they had not discussed the subject with us.  Oh well, we had a nice long (hot) walk anyway!

After our long walk earlier, we were too tired for dancing; therefore, we watched the third “Lord of the Rings” movie on TV.  (The second “Lord of the Rings” movie was not available on the ship’s TV, which didn’t make a lot of sense.)

 Perpendicular Railway

Monday, 4 Mar 2019 – We awoke to our alarm at 6:15 AM.  During breakfast, we said goodbye to several of our friends who would be disembarking in Sydney, including Dean & Darlene, Camillia & Mike, Charlotte & Joan, and Margaret & Carl.  We did not see our dancing friends, Mike & Nancy.  At 8:30 AM, our bus departed for our 8.5-hour “Blue Mountain” excursion.  Our tour guide was Anja (pronounced Anya) and our driver was Mick.  Anja narrated the scenery during the 2-hour drive to our destination.  As we traveled through the city on our way to the Blue Mountains, we rode past the 2000 Olympic site.  Following the trail of Australia's early explorers, our coach climbed high into the Blue Mountains.  Our mountain sightseeing included numerous small towns along the way that provide a weekend escape for many of the city's residents.

Blue Mountains Lookout Point

Blue Mountains Visitor Center with Anja

Upon arriving at the Blue Mountains Scenic World visitor’s center, Anja obtained railway and cable car passes for the tour group.   She then led us to the area where we boarded the world's steepest perpendicular railway, which plunges 700 feet into the valley at a 52 degree incline.  The seats on the train were reclined into a V-shape, so that the backs of the seats were at 45 degree angles.  Once the train started down the mountain, the seats were upright.  During our descent, we enjoyed spectacular views of the Grand Canyon of giant rock formations, geological history, and cascading waterfalls.  After disembarking at the bottom, we followed Anja along a path past the Katoomba Coal Mine, which operated during the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Entrances to the mine were marked, and several displays and lifelike sculptures depicted the mining operations.  After a few minutes of walking, we arrived at the entrance to the unique Scenicscender cable car which returned us to the top of the mountain.  As the cable car ascended, we enjoyed more views of Grand Canyon.  Then we boarded a “lateral” cable car that took us to an additional lookout point.  If time had permitted, from there, we could have walked 1.4 kilometers to the famous rock formation, the Three Sisters.

Olympic Park 

After re-boarding our bus, our next stop was the Echo Point Plaza, where we had a better view of the Three Sisters and awesome panoramic views of the Jamieson Valley, Mount Solitary, the Ruined Castle, Katoomba Falls, and the Burraborang Valley.  We spent about 30 minutes there before continuing on to the charming little village of Leura, where we were given free time to enjoy lunch on our own, and to explore some of the charming local crafts and antique shops.  A few of us followed Anja to her favorite restaurant, Bakehouse Leura, where we enjoyed meat pies and blueberry muffin.  Afterwards, we browsed through a few shops before re-joining our bus.

Since we were well ahead of schedule, the tour group voted to make an unscheduled photo and restroom stop at the site of the 2000 Olympics.  Our final stop was at the Harbor Bridge, where we had excellent views of Sydney’s Opera House and skyline.

Harbor Bridge

By 4:45 PM we were back at the ship, where we had another safety drill at 5:15 PM.  At dinner, we sat at a table near Maurice and Liz.  Dick and Arlene, whom we had met on last year’s cruise, also stopped to chat.  They boarded the ship in Sydney and will be cruising back to Miami.  After dinner, we finished watching the third “Lord of the Rings” movie.  Then we turned our clocks back by one hour before retiring for the night.