Wednesday 1st March

At sea again today starting with fog which cleared at about 10 am. After the usual sessions of Spanish & Bridge we had a fairly lazy day. In the evening we went to see the piano, violin duo present their last concert, which was excellent.

Thursday 2nd March

d*** woke early to see the lights on the coast & then dozed while we entered the Heads of Sydney Harbour, where we anchored about 2km out in the harbour, before the Opera House, as the Queen Mary 2 was moored at Circular Quay. After breakfast at about 8am we were ferried in a chartered tour boat to a pier just behind the Opera House & then walked over to the 'Rocks', Sydney’s oldest area & had a coffee & checked the internet etc.

Jane had arranged for us to meet Sherrin & Tony at a cafe on Circular Quay beneath the railway & the freeway. Sherrin had introduced Jane & d*** in 1970, as she had him pick her up for a dinner party at her house in Melbourne. We have by now both forgiven her & as she lives in Portugal, we hadn’t seen Tony & Sherrin for many years, when we stayed with them at their beautiful home in Reriz.

All went well & it was great to see them both so well. After a fairly lengthy discussion of the 2 families & the major developments since we had last met we decide to take a ferry across the harbour & took the first one going. This turned out to be the Manly ferry, the giant of the fleet which has identical ends each with its own propeller. Although it had been dull & had poured down with rain when we were in the cafe it had cleared & we had a very comfortable ride the length of the harbour to Manly which is just behind its North Head.

After an excellent lunch on the terminal wharf we walked to the sea & returned to catch the ferry back to Circular Quay. Sherrin & Tony wanted to see the ‘Rocks’ so we returned & found the fine Garrison Church on the crest of the hill behind.

Returning to Circular Quay we all caught a train to Wynyard where we caught another across the bridge to North Sydney as Sherrin & Tony were off to Sherrin’s brother’s house & we went to meet Gabrielle Jane’s niece who lives in Lane Cove.

Gabrielle picked us up & took us to a small Tapas restaurant & we had another great feed & caught up with all her exploits which was wonderful as we see her so rarely these days. She dropped us off just outside the Opera House & we caught the ferry back to Aurora, exhausted.

Friday 3rd March

In the night the ship moved to its berth in Circular Quay & we woke up latish, on a very grey day, to find it there. After breakfast we took a train to Town Hall & walked to Uniqlo, one of our favourite shops. Unusually Jane found nothing of interest so we retreated to have a coffee & catch up on the internet.

Outside the rain came on so we returned to Circular Quay & went into the Customs House to use the wi-fi but with no success. Then we found a ferry to Olympic Park, a 50 minute ride up the river past about 6 ferry stops. The catamaran ferry was nearly empty after the first stop at Cockatoo Island & we were the only passengers on it at Olympic Park. We were stunned at the numbers of huge blocks of units either recently built or under construction, possibly well over 1000 d*** thought. Many years ago a friend had lived near one of the later stops & we had used the ferry when we stayed there but most of the blocks of units & town house had been built since then & we only recognised it by some of the older landmarks.

At Olympic Park, d*** asked if there was anything to see & was told by a crew member that it was probably better to return to Circular Quay. We took the advice & enjoyed the ride home.

We returned to the Rocks & had a coffee while Jane populated the Blog with text & photos, a difficult & time consuming process.

Leaving the cafe we returned to the ship at about 5pm, as all passengers were to be on by 6.30 & the weather was deteriorating.

At 6.45 we went for tea in the cafeteria to see the ship leave. Unfortunately, the Captain told us, there were problems with the paperwork & ultimately, we left at 9pm which was far too late for us to see it leaving the Heads, much to our disappointment. Apparently we had about 1000 new passengers embarking in Sydney & there were some problems.

Wednesday 1st March

At sea again today starting with fog which cleared at about 10 am. After the usual sessions of Spanish & Bridge we had a fairly lazy day. In the evening we went to see the piano, violin duo present their last concert which was excellent.

Thursday 2nd March

d*** woke early to see the lights on the coast & then dozed while we entered the Heads of Sydney Harbour where we anchored about 2km out in the harbour before the Opera House, as the Queen Mary 2 was moored at Circular Quay. After breakfast at about 8am we were ferried in a chartered harbour tour boat to a pier just behind the Opera House & then walked over to the ‘Rocks’, Sydney’s oldest area & had a coffee & checked the internet etc.

Jane had arranged for us to meet Sherrin & Tony at a cafe on Circular Quay beneath the railway & the freeway. Sherrin had introduced Jane & d*** in 1970 as she had him pick her up for a dinner party at her house in Melbourne. We have by now both forgiven her & as she lives in Portugal we hadn’t seen Tony & Sherrin for many years when we stayed with them at their beautiful home in Reriz.

All went well & it was great to see them both so well. After a fairly lengthy discussion of the 2 families & the major developments since we had last met we decide to take a ferry across the harbour & took the first one going. This turned out to be the Manly ferry, the giant of the fleet which has identical ends each with its own propeller. Although it had been dull & had poured down with rain when we were in the cafe it had cleared & we had a very comfortable ride the length of the harbour to Manly which is just behind its North Head.

After an excellent lunch on the terminal wharf we walked to the sea & returned to catch the ferry back to Circular Quay. Sherrin & Tony wanted to see the ‘Rocks’ so we returned & found the fine Garrison Church on the crest of the hill behind.

Returning to Circular Quay we all caught a train to Wynyard where we caught another across the bridge to North Sydney as Sherrin & Tony were off to Sherrin’s brother’s house & we went to meet Gabrielle Jane’s niece who lives in Lane Cove.

Gabrielle picked us up & took us to a small Tapas restaurant & we had another great feed & caught up with all her exploits which was wonderful as we see her so rarely these days. She dropped us off just outside the Opera House & we caught the ferry back to Aurora, exhausted.

Friday 3rd March

In the night the ship moved to its berth in Circular Quay & we woke up latish, on a very grey day, to find it there. After breakfast we took a train to Town Hall & walked to Uniqlo, one of our favourite shops. Unusually Jane found nothing of interest so we retreated to have a coffee & catch up on the internet.

Outside the rain came on so we returned to Circular Quay & went into the Customs House to use the wi-fi but with no success. Then we found a ferry to Olympic Park, a 50 minute ride up the river past about 6 ferry stops. The catamaran ferry was nearly empty after the first stop at Cockatoo Island & we were the only passengers on it at Olympic Park. We were stunned at the numbers of huge blocks of units either recently built or under construction, possibly well over 1000 d*** thought. Many years ago a friend had lived near one of the later stops & we had used the ferry when we stayed there but most of the blocks of units & town house had been built since then & we only recognised it by some of the older landmarks.

At Olympic Park, d*** asked if there was anything to see & was told by a crew member that it was probably better to return to Circular Quay. We took the advice & enjoyed the ride home.

We returned to the Rocks & had a coffee while Jane populated the Blog with text & photos, a difficult & time consuming process.

Leaving the cafe we returned to the ship at about 5pm, as all passengers were to be on by 6.30 & the weather was deteriorating.

At 6.45 we went for tea in the cafeteria to see the ship leave. Unfortunately the Captain told us there were problems with the paperwork & ultimately, we left at 9pm which was far too late for us to see it leaving the Heads, much to our disappointment. Apparently we had about 1000 new passengers embarking in Sydney & there were some problems.