I was up on deck early this morning as we sailed into Sydney Harbor, the world’s largest natural harbor. On our 2010 Regent World Cruise we stopped in Sydney for two days. Not this time as we sail at 6:00 pm today. Bummer!! Last time we were here the weather was very uncooperative with steady rain for the two days. Last time we took an 8 hour excursion to see the famed “Blue Mountains”. It was a no extra charge excursion but this time they are charging $119 pp for it. Regent is doing more and more of this!!
BACKGROUND INFO:
First, a little bit about Sydney. It is the state capital of New South Wales and has a population of nearly 5 million, which makes it the most populous city in Australia. The first British settlers came in 1788 to make Sydney a penal colony which it remained until the mid 1800’s. After that it has been transformed into a major global cultural and economic center. Today, finance, manufacturing, and tourism drive its economy. Of course the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbor Bridge are two major tourist attractions along with Bondi Beach, the Royal National Park, and Royal Botanic Gardens. Bondi Beach is Australia's world famous surfing beach.
WHAT WE DID TODAY:
After we docked at the White Bay pier, Australian immigration officials came on the ship and everyone on board had to have a face-to-face meeting with them and present their passports for inspection. It was very well organized so quite painless.
We were off the ship at 9:30 for our "Discover Sydney Panorama" 3 hours bus tour of Sydney. You will have to view my photos with captions to get an idea of what we saw this morning. It is hard to take photos from a bus window on the narrow city streets. There was a short rain shower during our first stop for photos but then sun came back our for the rest of our tour. We returned to the ship at 12:30. Rebecca is have a protein bar in the suite for her lunch and I am in the dining room to have a bbq pork sandwich for mine. I am uploading photos to Google Photo while waiting for my sandwich. This afternoon I intend to workout after publishing today's blog post. I have over 100 photos that I took today so have to add captions first.
Here is the link for the photos I took today. Remember click on first one to enlarge it. On right side you should see "i" standing for info. Click on it so you can read the photo captions. Then you can arrow through photos. Arrow will be on center right side of the photo. Run your cursor there if not visible. You will have to "cut and paste" the link to open browser. I am receiving positive feedback about this way of posting my photos. I hope you like it too.
https://goo.gl/photos/5yeAvfhrYDuWaa6F9
So this is Fat Tuesday here today as we are still a day ahead of you back in US. Chef Michael has added a couple New Orleans style appetizers and an entree to the Compass Rose restaurant menu in honor of Mardi Gras. We have some Mardi Gras beads to wear this evening. Here are what Chef Michael added:
Southern Cajun Shrimp on Cheddar Cheese Grits
Louisiana Seafood Gumbo
Blackened Fresh Grey Snapper on Creole Seafood Jambalaya
Boy am I glad I asked if they were going to have any New Orleans style food to celebrate Mardi Gras. There was no plan before I brought it up.
We hope to go to tonight's headliner showtime. It is featuring Ben Murphy, a comedy magician. We missed his first show as we had left the ship for our overland tour.
We will be sailing at 6:00 pm this evening for our next stop which is Brisbane. But first we will have another day at sea. The sail out of Sydney Harbor this evening should be beautiful.
DINNER LAST NIGHT:
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