I am starting this post as we wing our way to Sydney, as I am desperately tired and trying not to sleep until at least 9pm Sydney time (5am EDT). That’s three and a half hours away, but I am determined. I’ll finish it from Sydney, but it may seem a little time warped.
I had been checking the seating chart for this flight every day for the past two weeks. Two days ago there were 35 open seats, one of them the seat between G and I. This morning it was down to five, still with an unfilled seat between us. By the time we arrived at the airport, even that one was gone. Darn it! That empty seat can make such a difference in comfort on a long flight!
Still, our departure day went perfectly. We had a few hours layover at LAX, a result of Delta pushing back our original flight to LA to the point where we were uncomfortable with our connection time. We asked for, and were booked on an earlier flight…much less stressful. With our extra time in LA, we walked over to the Bob Hope USO, between Terminals 1 and 2. USOs are wonderful things, and while they are rightfully meant for traveling active duty military, retirees are welcome to use them if there is space. Well, the Bob Hope USO last night was nearly empty, and the volunteers were (as always) so wonderful that it’s a bit like being welcomed home by Mom. There was food, including plenty of fruit, and lots of power ports and comfy seating and a basketball game on ESPN. And it’s quiet, which the airport terminal definitely is not. We spent a very comfortable couple of hours there and were even offered sandwiches when we left for our flight. Like I said, only Mom can top that. Sure, it’s not one of those frou-frou airline loyalty clubs but we loved it.
And from that point on, it was really just a matter of endurance. I removed my contacts before we boarded the flight to Sydney, and, because of my resulting poor vision, we were allowed to board early. That’s a wonderful thing, but, by the time we disembarked in Sydney, we had been on the plane 16 hours. Even more comfortable seats (as these Economy Class seats were not) get a little confining after that amount of time. Still, we were lucky. There were no significant delays, no bad weather, just some minor turbulence from the equatorial convergence as we passed to the Southern Hemisphere.
Ugh
We had free WiFi and texting on both our of Delta flights, courtesy of T-Mobile, which was a dream come true, but when it got late and there was no one awake any longer to text, I turned my attention to all the emails I had received after publishing my first blog post. Honestly, you all are the BEST. I tried very hard to respond to each one during the early hours of our flight, but wondered later just what I had written. I was literally holding one eye open at a time trying to stay awake. Eventually, I lost the WiFi signal (I guess transpacific flights are a little like transpacific cruises that way) and that was my cue to take an Ambien and sleep.
And I did sleep, probably close to six hours. It’s not equivalent to six hours of sleep in one’s own bed, of course, but it is a wonderful way to pass the time. Every time I’d awaken, I’d walk to the back of the plane and stretch and walk in place and try to keep the blood flowing (I’d been pushing low dose aspirin for both of us for two days, just in case), and I recall a middle of the night snack being served but that’s about all I remember until we had about 3 to 4 hours left in our flight. By that time, we were flying just south of some of the islands we’ll be visiting and it was exciting to see them on the flight tracking map. Also exciting: FINALLY seeing the land mass of Australia appear on the bottom left corner of the map. There’s a whole lot of empty ocean out there.
First glimpse of Australia on the flight map. 
Counting down 
Finally!We landed and claimed our luggage without issue. There wasn’t even any stress related with that this year. Delta had notified us of every step of the way when each of our three checked bags was transferred, and they were on the plane to Sydney long before we were. That’s a wonderful feature, Delta! We next made our way to immigration. Easy-peasy. We scanned our own passports at self-serve kiosks that then ejected a ticket for each of us. A little further on, we inserted that ticket into a machine and looked directly into a camera, which electronically compared our image to our passport photo (see, I told you it was wise to not clean ourselves up for our passport photos!), and that was it. No stamps, no being questioned about food in our luggage (that was a huge change from our prior visits where we were individually asked about that and our luggage was sniffed by food detecting dogs).
We had looked into booking a shuttle to take us to our hotel in Sydney but truly every company had very bad reviews on Trip Advisor. Some reviewers even went so far as to claim that none of Sydney’s shuttle services were reliable. I don’t know why that might be, but we decided to wait until we arrived to arrange any transfers. We thought we might take the train for (I think) $14 AUD per person, but Uber was our fall back option. G left me with the luggage as he went to scope out both choices, then came scurrying back when he found a shuttle leaving right then that would take us and all our luggage for $15 AUD per person. $24 USD to get us and our suitcases right to the door of our hotel? Sold!
There were only two other stops before we were dropped off at the front door of the Holiday Inn Old Sydney. We approached the hotel by driving under the Harbour Bridge and that first view of the bridge and the Opera House never fails to impressively stun. Such a beautiful harbor front area! It had been 11 years since we had last seen the Holiday Inn Old Sydney, but we had stayed there for a week, so it still looked familiar. It is just one street back from the Overseas Passenger Terminal where we’ll board the Golden Princess on Sunday, a short distance that means we can simply roll our luggage to the terminal.
It was only 10am at that point, though it felt like late afternoon or early evening (because it was…at home) and, of course, our room was not ready yet. Some people reserve a room for the night before their early morning arrival, and we might have, too, but, while the hotel hadn’t changed in 11 years, one thing had: the price. I think we paid far less than $180 USD per night when we stayed here last time; this year it’s around $350 USD per night. At that rate, we thought we’d store our luggage and go for a walk.
It was a warm and sunny day, and we walked the narrow streets and alleys in the historic Rocks area on the harbor. This was the site of Australia’s first settlement by the British, and now the streets are a mix of historic buildings, boutique hotels and trendy shops and restaurants. After stretching our legs, we returned to the hotel where we were given key cards to access the rooftop pool deck on the 8th floor. We had the foresight to pack swimsuits in our roll aboards, and grabbed them and headed to the roof. There was even a single shower where we washed off the grime of the past (by then) 28 hours and stretched out on loungers. I forced myself into the pool (freezing!) and did some laps, spurred on by the incredible view of the Harbour Bridge in one direction, and the Sydney Opera House in the other. Pinch me! G held down the hot tub and I eventually joined him there to warm up. There was a house phone on that level and we called the front desk about noon and were told a room was nearly ready for us, three hours early. We love this hotel!
What we also love is our free upgrade to an Opera House view room. Well, actually, it’s an Opera House AND partial Harbour Bridge view room. That was a recent surprise; we had phoned the hotel a week ago to confirm that the renovation of the rooftop pool area, which has been ongoing for the past couple of months, was complete. We were also holding onto a reservation at the Intercontinental for a Harbour Bridge View Deluxe Room (don’t even ask about the nightly rate there!), but G wanted to have that as a backup if the Holiday Inn hot tub wasn’t going to be open. The very nice Holiday Inn front desk clerk had confirmed that the rooftop pool area was re-opening just that day, and, while G was chatting with her, she offered us the upgrade from the ‘back of another building’ view room we had booked to a Superior room with a view. Well, yes, thank you, we will take that! And, though the room is small (as they all are in this historic building), the view is not. Gorgeous!
The buildings directly across the street, between our hotel and the Overseas PassengerTerminal
were once bonded warehouses serving the port. G immediately noticed the pulley anchors
on the sides of the building, because of course he did. ;-)
Our partial view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We had watched climbers walk up the top
of the arch while we were on the rooftop pool area.
We settled our luggage and then set out for another walk and a meal. We wanted to return to one of our favorite restaurants, Pancakes on The Rocks, just down the street. When we stayed here last time, breakfast was not included in our room rate, and, every morning when we awakened around 3am (that darn jet lag), we would walk down to Pancakes, open 24 hours a day, for a very early breakfast. This year, our room rate includes breakfast, but we knew we’d still eat at Pancakes on the Rocks at least once, for old times’ sake. They have a very nice lunch and dinner menu, also.
Once fed, we became instantly tired and did exactly the wrong thing…went back to our room to lay down ‘for a nap’. Right…at 9pm I woke up ready for the day. If G was awake I’m sure we’d go back out, but he is still sleeping and I decided to prepare this blog post. I’ll try to sleep again when I’ve posted it (the movie The DaVinci Code is on TV and that will help), but I predict there are going to be few early morning wake ups until we get used to this time difference.
Edited to add: I must have been really snoozing. I just noticed an ice bucket with a bottle of champagne and two flutes and an anniversary card (actually three weeks ago), compliments of the manager, on the vanity. When did that arrive? How did I sleep through that? Where am I? And then I look out the window and see the lighted Opera House and the twinkling lights of ferries in Sydney Harbour. Oh, yeah, I am here. We are here.
Life is good. :-)