Gismo Queen and her King

Sydney

Althought the alarm was set this morning, we both woke well beforehand. When I looked at the time, it was 6:12am so I pulled open the curtains, thinking I might see part of Sydney Harbour on the way past. But no, the view that greeted me was the Sydney International Passenger Terminal!! We were already docked.

The disembarkation process was smooth so we found ourselves back on Australian soil by 8am. We walked the 400 metres to the hotel, realising it would be far too early to check in but at least wanting to drop our bags. After seeking a recommendation for the second best breakfast venue in the area (after theirs, obviously), we headed around the corner for breakfast. Oh, the joy of a decent coffee, made with real milk, not too hot and strong - so you can actually taste the coffee flavour!

By 9:30am we were back on the street, wondering what to do with our day. It was such a lovely warm day, the water was an obvious drawcard - and obviously continuing the theme of our past 8 days! So we took a 2 hour cruise on the harbour, with commentary to make it interesting for Greg. It was a little freaky to sail past the ship we had just got off!

We had a lovely time on the harbour and were back at the hotel at 1:30pm, to find our room ready and bags already there, so we were pleased to enter our lovely spacious room (much bigger than the ship's stateroom!), and I was even more delighted to step onto the balcony and take in the view of the bridge and opera house - well, at least I will be able to see the opera house when our big ship sails out again tonight! It was kind of cool to be at the same level as Deck 12 and it really is so close.

So we caught up on internet and enjoyed the fresh air on the balcony before it was afternoon tea time. Heading out into The Rocks, we found a lovely Frech patisserie. We scored a table outside, and the pastry chef himself recommended a cake to go with my divine coffee (I feel like I still have. Week's worth of coffee to catch up on!). It was lovely.

Back in the hotel, we got changed for dinner and then watched our big ship pull away from dock and sail past the opera house, on it's way out again. We walked into the City to the Sydney Tower for our dinner reservation in the revolving restaurant. Arriving at the perfect time to have one revolution while it was still daylight and then another with the City lights, we enjoyed a delightful meal and needed to walk it off so we walked back to the hotel.

posted by Tracey @ 10:38 pm