Sydney

Friday, February 9, 2024 - We arrived in Sydney today, sailing in about 2:30 AM. Our plan was to get up to watch the sail in, but sleep has been sporadic on this trip, and we missed the sail past the opera house and under the harbour bridge and woke up just as we were docking in White Bay Cruise Terminal. Despite assurances that there would be no excursions at this port, since it was an unplanned stop and our excursions would occur when we return on the 15th and 16th, Viking did arrange for a scenic cruise for all passengers - 1/2 at, 8:30 AM and others at 12:30 - depending on your stateroom deck - which also determined the order for immigration. We were due for immigration at 7:45, and were out in less than 5 minutes and opted to forego the cruise and took the shuttle into Sydney. The shuttle left us at Kings Wharf and we walked around "The Rocks” - where some of the oldest buildings in Sydney are built into the rocks, then walked down under the Harbour Bridge with a view of the Opera House. We then took the hop-on hop-off bus around downtown Sydney. Not surprisingly many of the street names (Elizabeth, George, Victoria, Williams, etc) and the parks (Hyde) are very British. The architecture was quite interesting with the mix of new and old buildings right next to each other. We exited the bus a few stops early and walked back through Hyde Park, near St. Mary’s Cathedral and through the Victoria shopping area. We then had a late lunch - fabulous sweet potato burgers - at a little cafe along King’s Wharf overlooking the water (pretty funny since all our meals for the last 6 weeks have been with a water view LOL). We took the shuttle back to our ship for our back on board time of 4:30. And then, the absolute highlight of the day, was the sail out of the harbour. First they backed out of the terminal, did a 3 point turn in the King’s Wharf section of the harbor and then sailed out weaving around the narrow harbour to go under the bridge and past the opera house. We waved to the people doing the harbour bridge climb and to people on the ferries. There were hundreds of sailboats in the harbour, and a fire boat that was spinning as it shot out sprays of water. All this as the sun was going down. It was truly magnificent — something that really can’t be captured in words or in pictures. We will be back in Sydney again in a few days, so we will hopefully get to enjoy this again.