World Cruise - Day 46 - Feb 27 - Sydney, Australia (Day Two)

Sydney is the first of three overnight stays we have during this cruise (Hong Kong and Dubai are the other two).  There wasn’t a sunrise to speak of this morning, since it’s pretty cloudy, so I took another photo of Sydney Opera House from the ship:

It’s pretty cloudy, but the weather forecast says it will clear up at least somewhat by the time we climb later the Sydney Harbour Bridge later this morning.  Our climb starts at 9:15a and it takes 3½ hours to complete.  They go at a pretty slow pace, so I’m not worried too much about the endurance factor.  I’m worried more about not being able to use the bathroom for 3½ hours while we are suited up.  They take away all jewelry (including rings, earrings, bracelets, necklaces) and anything that could be dropped (such as coins or cameras).  If we want pics, we will have to buy them from them, so if you see photos from the bridge on the blog, you’ll know that I caved in and bought their photos.  Also, they make you take a breathalyzer test before you start, if you are over 0.05%, you cannot go.

So here’s a morning view of the bridge we will be climbing today, the Sydney Harbour Bridge:

We will be climbing underneath the bridge up to the first concrete pylon.  We will be entering the span at that first pylon on the left, actually the one to the right of those two (on this side), then up on top of the span arch to the top of the bridge, then across, then back down the top arch on the other side, then down the pylon, then back.  The pics from yesterday’s blog entry of the top of the bridge were from the top of the pylon, which can be entered from below (and included as part of our bridge climb).

As a side note, the two pics above are from different cameras.  The first pic is from my Canon Rebel DSLR and the second one is from the Canon PowerShot.  You can see the difference in color saturation if you look at the sky and the water and compare between the pics.  The DSLR gets better photos in almost all situations, but it’s not pocketable.  I took the first photo upstairs just after sunrise, the second photo was while we were at breakfast (so I had my PowerShot in my pocket).

Patti, you are right, the pic of the unidentified bird yesterday is an ibis.  They are as common as seagulls around here.  Apparently so are the cockatiels (or cockatoos, not sure which is the right name).  Our friends Sergio and Noemi had pics of a big flock of them in one of the parks.  We only saw one, I had fun taking pics of it.  We only see them in cages in the US.

Today about half of the ship (about 320 of the 680 passengers) will be getting off and a new group of people joining us for the next segment (Sydney to Singapore).  We saw several people this morning at breakfast and just walking the ship.  What a wonderful group of people.  Half the fun of this cruise is just getting to meet such wonderful people and hearing their stories.

Whenever we are walking somewhere, whether on the ship or nearby the ship, we have to plan extra time just for stopping and talking with other passengers and/or crew.  Even off the ship in Sydney, we were running into people we knew from the ship as far away as Bondi Beach.  It’s like a big happy family all taking a vacation together.

As we got off the ship this morning, we saw Krissie’s “Coach” from the walking track.  His name is George, her name is Barbara.  George would be out on the walking track encouraging Krissie.  He recently fell, hurting his arm.  They were getting off today, so we asked to get a photo:

We made our way over to Sydney Harbour Bridge for our BridgeClimb.  As we prepped for the climb, there were photos of famous people who did the climb.  I thought Brandon would like the Will Smith pic and Jacqueline would like the Matt Damon photo.  Note also that there was a woman who did the climb at age 100:

As we got ready for our climb, everyone introduced themselves and why they were climbing.  We had two birthdays (lady in the pic below on the left turned 60 today, lady in the center turned 50 today) and one anniversary (couple on the right is celebrating their 40^th wedding anniversary today):

Sydney Harbour Bridge is the largest single span bridge in the world.  The climb is not strenuous, but you have to be OK with heights.  Yes, Julie, you are correct.  It’s not a difficult climb unless you are afraid of heights.  Here is a description of the climb that I lifted from a coffee mug in the gift shop:

“BridgeClimb, n. Ascend 134 meters above sea level in 252.5 meters horizontal distance, with no barriers, no sense of time, no going back, just onward, upward, the ferries below the size of matchboxes, the Opera House shrinking away across the hourbour.  1,337 stairs, 1½ football fields above the water, and a breathtaking view of Sydney, surrounding suburbs and all the way to the mountains.  My heart pounds, my legs shake, I feel every breath…”

I could not have said it better.  The climb was truly awesome.

Pic taken near the top of the bridge.  This is a great photo, but it almost looks Photoshopped?  Sydney Opera House to the left, you can see our ship on the right side of the photo:

Here is a shot of us crossing the center girder from one side to the other, Sydney Opera House in the lower right of the photo and another climbing team on the far girder:

Sonia, we did have an Aussie beer after the climb to celebrate.  I had a Coopers NA and Krissie had a Coopers Extra Stout.  Very refreshing!

We went back to the ship for lunch on the back of deck 9 and watched the other bridge climbers—can you see them?

This gives a closer up shot of the bridge climbers on their way down on the far girder:

In the afternoon we took the ferry to Manly Beach.  Here is a view of the Opera House from the Manly Ferry (simply cannot take enough pic angles of this building):

Manly has two different beaches: Manly Harbour Beach (which is calm for swimming) and Manly Surf Beach (the famous beach, on the Pacific Ocean side).  We went to the latter when the ferry arrived.  Looking North at Manly Surf Beach:

Looking south at Manly Surf Beach:

These guys were in a double sea kayak in the surf:

This was the surf safety school doing a practice run with their lifesaving boards, all going into the water at the same time:

It was difficult getting good pics of the surfers, since they start further out at Manly vs. Bondi.  Several surfers were WAY out catching the first rollers coming in:

This guy was doing some great tricks with a short board, including a full 360 spin.

The girl caught the wave, all the guys are watching:

Sailboat near North Head:

Manly Ferry heading into Manly from the other direction as we are heading back to Sydney Harbor.

I don’t know what/who MC38 is, but I like the design of this sailboat and spinnaker:

Another sailboat in the harbor:

We ate dinner again out on the back of deck 9 to watch the sailaway.  One more view of Sydney Harbor Bridge from a new angle as we began to pull out into the Harbour:

The World Cruise Choir sang as we departed Sydney:

Last close-up view of Sydney Opera House, it was about 8:30p, it is all lit up.  I think this might be my best pic of all?

This is the only shot I have straight on of Sydney Harbour Bridge as we sailed away:

Last view of Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, so picture worthy, even at night:

Our last view of Sydney as we sailed out of Sydney Harbour:

The entertainment tonight was “multi-instrumentalist” Ross Maio.  I put “multi-instrumentalist” in quotes, since he really only played one instrument, an accordion.  However, the accordion had a synthesizer, so he was able to synthesize several different instruments:

Tomorrow is sea day #1 of 3 on our way to Cairnes (pronounced “Cans”), Australia, for the great Barrier Reef.