July 12th, 2007

Arrived in Sydney this morning at about 8:30 local time. It is 14 hours later here than it is on the east coast of the US. Australian customs appeared to be very efficient, but leaving the customs area could use a bit more coordination. We finally just decided to jump in line where we were rather than squeeze through crowds to find the end of the line. Lots of other people were doing the same thing, so I didn’t feel too badly. We hopped into a taxi and headed for the hotel. We were able to check in and leave our bags, but our room was not ready yet. So we headed off in search of a good breakfast place. We’re staying at the same hotel that Rob’s mother and brother stayed in two years ago, so we have been told that there’s a great breakfast place very nearby. We wound up eating just behind the Circle Quay at an outdoor café. Breakfast was delicious – and also didn’t quite register exactly which meal we were eating. From there we wandered back towards the hotel via a park that looks across the water to the Sydney Opera House and up to the Sydney Bridge. The sky is so crisply blue and the sunshine so bright, that everything looks brilliant. Having seen a couple of workers cleaning a public phone, perhaps it really is as brilliantly clean.
We decided to kill a little more time by wandering through the Rocks, the first settled area of Sydney. The tiny cobbled streets were delightful and there were a number of shops and restaurants. When we haven’t just gotten off an airplane, we will return to look at The Rocks Museum to learn a bit more about the area. This is easy, as our hotel is less than a block from this historical area.
At about 11:00 we were able to get into our hotel room and promptly lay down for a good 4 hour nap… much needed as in our minds, it was now about 1am. Oh jetlag. We got up again mid-afternoon and headed out to wander around some of the sites. The Rocks Museum was about to close for the day, so we went down to the waterfront, walked through the park there and then through the Circular Quay station. There are many places to find a quick bite to eat there. This is also a leaving place for ferries and trains. From there, we walked further along the water to the Sydney Opera House. I was surprised to find out that all the famous arches are not connected… there are several separate buildings at the top of one larger base. It also appears that there are many different performance areas. There is room for music, for dance, and for drama. Maybe we’ll try to see something there.
Having woken up with a stomach upset from random times and types of food over the last two days, I decided I would rather skip the adventurous new food for dinner, and we had pizza. It was very good pizza – mine had avocado on it and Rob got a four-cheese pizza with blue cheese. Then we went back to the hotel to look at our wedding photos, which are online! Lovely!! And finally – back up to the room and an early bedtime.