This is the view we woke up to this morning; it doesn’t get any better than this.
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| The view from our veranda this morning |
I’m Worn out. I walked 2.7 miles today (according to my phone). Today was a planned maintenance day. I got off the ship to where the transit center is located near Circular Quay where the ship is docked—and that’s about a half a mile before anything happened. Michael was off for a big excursion today and that left me by myself to go get around the city. He worries about me, but I’m a big girl and I’ve been here before so I know how to do it. I got on the tram and road to the Queen Victoria Building, which, by the way, is a magnificent building that has been turned into a shopping center.
My destination was the yarn shop – – yeah, I know I promised myself I wouldn’t buy anymore – – but I was meeting some of my knitters there. On the way to the yarn shop, I passed a pharmacy, and I had a prescription written by the doctor on the ship for the medication that I have somehow lost in transit. I was told that they would not fill it unless I went to a local doctor to get the prescription. But to my surprise, they actually filled one prescription But they did not have the second one because Australia doesn’t carry it. So later in the day I went back to the ship doctor to see if there was a substitute and there was, so tomorrow I’m going back to the pharmacy to see if I can get that filled .
Back to the yarn shop. There was a 90% off clearance sale, and boy was it a big one! But I was very proud of myself. I did not buy anything. I met Kathleen to help her pick out yarn for a project and then a few more of my knitters came in, but I have no idea what they bought. I feel so good when I can create knitters that love the craft as much as I do.
I did my research and found a nail shop within short walking distance of the shop. This is a Westfield mall unlike any of it I’ve ever seen — it was huge and it went over several blocks. I had a pedicure and my nails done, and was very satisfied with the job. BTW, there was no tipping involved. I asked for the shortest way back to the tram, and of course the gals in the shop had me go in the wrong direction. I stopped and asked a police officer, and he says to go back the way you came from. And I retraced my steps, got on the tram, and walked back to the ship.
Michael’s excursion:
Today, it was up at the crack of dawn for a nine hour excursion to the Blue Mountains. This is a spectacular part of Australia and we were so lucky to have a perfect day. Our sistership, the Neptune sky, was here just yesterday, and it was so foggy that they saw absolutely nothing. Our first stop was at Echo Point where you can see the entire Blue Mountain range in all its glory along with the rainforest which is in front of it. We had a terrific view of the famous three sisters, which incidentally, used to be seven sisters, but four of them fell off.
We next traveled to Scenic World, which is a series of rides and walks within the Blue Mountains themselves. We didn’t have enough time to do it all. I did get the opportunity to ride on the Scenic Skyway, and the Scenic Railway, which at 64°, is the steepest passenger train in the world. It was quite an experience. We could definitely have used another hour to hour and a half here to explore the various walks, but such is the way of a guided tour.
It was then a short 15 minute bus ride to the town of Leura. Well, if I have ever been in a town that was geared to tourism, this is it. Every store was either a restaurant, a gift shop, a clothing store, or something similar, and it was very, very crowded. Tourism in Australia is back! Having now walked approximately 3 miles, it was now time to sit back and relax on the bus as we returned to Sydney. The Guide did do one diversion to the old Olympic village from when the Olympics were in Sydney in 2000. Most of the venues were still there and still being used. In fact, the major stadium was in the process of getting ready for a Taylor Swift concert, which is going to happen later this week.
Iconic images of Sydney:
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| Sydney Harbour Bridge |
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| Opera house at night |
