We had a fantastic day in Sydney, just wonderful, and it was due, in large part, to the weather. It was sunny and a bit warm (88F this afternoon) with a fairly steady breeze. It was a perfect day to do what we’ve been planning for awhile, as far back as when we were here two years ago, but hadn’t yet managed to accomplish.
Our sail in’s to Sydney Harbour seem to be happening a lot earlier in the morning that they did two years ago. Once again, I set the alarm for 5am, and, when it sounded, turned on the front of the ship channel and saw that we were already passing by the North and South Heads. I should have sprung out of bed...but all I could do is hit the snooze button. After doing that a second time, I looked at the front of the ship channel just as the Ruby Princess was sailing past the Opera House. It was 5:18am; yes, it’s not my imagination. We are arriving MUCH earlier than we did on the Golden Princess, which would generally reach the Overseas Passenger Terminal about 6am. I took a photo of the TV...and fell back asleep again.
As close as I got to watching sail in this morning.
Despite my reluctance to wake up, I met up with G in the DaVinci Dining Room for breakfast when it opened at 6:30am. I added two pieces of toast to my usual oranges and smoked salmon breakfast; we had an active day planned and I wasn’t sure we’d get lunch. Back in the cabin, we gathered some things together that we needed to get through our day, most notably our passports and in transit cards. Reading through our in transit letters last night, we noted that we are back into the pattern we knew from our turnarounds on the Golden Princess; because we are leaving Australia on this itinerary, we could not re-board the ship more than one time today. We also needed to take our passports off the ship with us. In fact, we had received a phone call from the administrative manager last night reiterating both points. No matter...these requirements would work well with our plans for the day.
We walked off the ship at 8:30am, and were boarding a route 333 bus to Bondi Beach at Circular Quay just 10 minutes later. We had to decide between taking a bus all the way to Bondi Beach, or taking a bus/train combination. We decided to stick with the bus because it allowed us to see more of Sydney away from the touristy Opera House/Harbour Bridge area. We arrived at Bondi Beach at 9:30am, G stopped in a small store across from the beach for a bag of potato chips and we started to walk.
And walked and walked. Our goal was to do the Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk, considered the best coastal walk in Australia and one of the best in the world. This 3.7 mile walk connects Bondi with four of Sydney's other eastern beaches: Tamarama, Bronte, Clovelly and Coogee. In between the beaches, the walk offers expansive views of the Coral Sea and rock cliffs. In addition, Sculpture By The Sea, an arts programs featuring sculptures located along the walk from Bondi to Tamarama, was wrapping up this weekend, and we wanted to see that, too.
Beautiful Bondi Beach
Iceberg Pools at Bondi Beach
The start of Sculpture By The Sea
The Statue of Mad Liberty by Wang Kaifang
Level by David Jenz with Bondi Beach in the background
Kitsugi Coral by Karin van der Molen
Empires Dismantled by Richard Byrnes
Mother Nature at her best
Sometimes the path was gentle and easy
Sometimes it was fairly steep
Viewfinder by Joel Adler
This was by far my favorite piece. It was designed like one of those boxes
used at golf tournaments and royal parades to see over people’s heads.
It showed the spectacular view over the edge of the cliff
Boom. Mic drop. Game over. I loved it.
Tidal pools between Bondi and Tamarama Beaches
Tamarama Beach
The only break we took, for G to eat potato chips at Tamarama Beach
Australia has some very different chips (excuse me, crisps) flavors
Looking toward Bronte Beach
Pool at Bronte Beach
Looking toward Clovelly Beach
In places like this, the path had to climb stairs, sometimes quite steep,
to reach the top of the cliff, and then eventually go down steps to return
to water level. There was a surprising amount of ups and downs.
The beautiful cliffs between Bronte and Clovelly Beaches with Clovelly Cemetery on the right
Sea cliffs below Clovelly Cemetery
Looking to the north with the start of our walk at the top
Clovelly Beach
The section between Clovelly and Coogee Beaches was the hardest. We’d been climbing a lot of stairs between beaches, but the stairs just before Coogee seemed endless. Somehow, we were always in the hot sun on the uphill stretches, and in the shade on the downhills. And it was after noon by then, and the day was getting pretty hot. Just in time, we reached Coogee Beach. We had done it, plus did a lot of extra walking between the sculptures at the start. I had just finished the last of my water, and G was starving, so we stopped in a Subway at Coogee Beach and he had a 6” sub, and I had a big bottle of water with ice, and it perked us up enough to find a bus stop.
Finally...Coogee Beach
We could have taken a bus the entire way back to Circular Quay, but decided to take a bus to Central Station and a train from there. We nearly missed the Central Station stop; only because nearly everyone left the bus did we ask the one remaining couple if we were at Central Station. We were.
The adjacent train track at Central Station
Sydney trains, like their buses, depart frequently.
Our train had eight two-level cars
Once back at Circular Quay, we walked up George St. south of The Rocks area. This area was a mess two years ago, with the construction of a tram system. We actually saw the trams, brand new and bright red, at a storage lot today. The system is being tested and is expected to begin operation next year. I can’t imagine that the Sydney mass transit system could be further improved, but apparently it will be.
We needed to be on board by 3:30pm (or 3:45pm, I forget which), and we reboarded the Ruby Princess just after 3pm. I was toast, hungry and tired and sore (but surprisingly not too). We unpacked our day bag, and I showered first (during muster drill, of course). Sailway was scheduled for 4pm. And we watched from Skywalkers until we passed Rose Bay and then went down to Club Fusion. The Elite Lounge is back in there this cruise; there must be a lot of Platinum and Elite members on board again.
The Harbour Bridge taken through the windows in Skywalkers
Backing out of Circular Quay
Turning to port in front of the Opera House
The Royal Botanic Gardens with the CBD behind
Mrs. Macquaries chair in the Royal Botanic Gardens
(Offers postcard views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. We’ll try to get over there
on a turnaround day and I’ll post a photo from there if we do.)
Through the windows in Club Fusion, the South Head lighthouse
We were thrilled when we went to our table in the DaVinci Dining Room to see waiter Jorge and assistant waiter Aldrin from last cruise. They usually change dining rooms every cruise, but I think because last cruise was so short, the Maitre d’ decided to keep assignments the same for this cruise, too. We were pretty quiet at dinner. Once fed, we were instantly exhausted.
We weren’t on the ship for lunch, but here is the embarkation day menu
Day 1 lunch menu, page 1
Day 1 lunch menu, page 2
Day 1 dinner menu, page 1
Day 1 dinner menu, page 2
Day 1 dessert menu
We had just enough energy left to go to the Princess Theater for the 7:30pm performance of production show Stardust. Barely. We enjoyed the show, then waited for Cruise Director Aaron’s usual information on passenger nationalities. Canada is in 5th place, New Zealand in 4th, Britain in 3rd, the US just barely ahead in second (174 passengers) and Australia in the lead with over 2400 passengers. We love it...while waiting for the show to begin, we chatted with a couple from Sydney as if we had known them for years. The passengers on this ship are wonderful and are really making these cruises fun for us.
The walk from the Princess Theater on Deck 6 forward to our cabin on Deck 14 aft never felt as long as it did tonight. Somehow I mustered up the energy to be ecstatic that cabin steward Noel returned some laundry I submitted on Port Arthur day, three days ago. The one time I forgot to take a photo of my laundry slip, the laundry department kept my clothes over a turnaround day and I was suddenly nervous about it. It was also my largest submission to date with 12 items. As I was walking today, I was trying to remember what I had sent in and how I was going to get along without it for the next long while if it was actually lost. Disaster averted; insert deep sigh of relief here.
When I synced my Fitbit tonight, I was blown away by my step total for the day. Four months after major reconstructive surgery on my foot, look what I did! How I feel tomorrow morning will really tell me how well I’m doing, but, in the meantime, I am most hopeful that everything both G and I went through this summer was worthwhile.
Life is sooooo good. ;-)
Day 1 Princess Patter, page 1
Day 1 Princess Patter, page 2
Day 1 Princess Patter, page 3
Day 1 Princess Patter, page 4