Sydney, Australia - Nov 15, 2011

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia with a metropolitan area population of over 4.2 million people. It ia the state capital of New South Wales and is located on the country’s southeast coast. The first European colony in Australia, Sydney was established in 1788 at Sydney Cove by Arthur Phillip who led the First Fleet from Britain. Built around Port Jackson, which includes Sydney Harbour, the city of Sydney has been nicknamed “Harbour City”. Sydney is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Blue Mountains to the west, the Hawkesbury River to the north and the Woronora Plateau to the south. It lies on the submerged coastline, where the ocean level has risen to flood deep river valleys carved in the sandstone. One of these valleys, Port Jackson, better known as Sydney Harbour, is the largest natural harbour in the world. At the time the arrival of the first fleet in 1788, 4000-8000 Aboriginal people lived in the region. Urbanization has destroyed most evidence of these early settlements, however, Sydney and its environs are well known for numerous rock drawings and carvings in the sandstone. Several gold rushes, starting in 1851, brought waves of people arriving from around the world and the rapid suburban development that began in the last quarter of the 19th century continues today, giving Sydney its cosmopolitan flair.

Today began early, real early, around the 5 o’clock mark to catch the incredible sunrise sail in to the magnificent harbour. With a slight warm breeze there was no disappointment on the front deck to watch this nature in all its glory.

Docked by 6:30 we were ready for our day. The ship for some reason did not get cleared until just after 8 am so a bit of a wait after breakfast off the back deck with the Harbour Bridge over one shoulder and the Sydney Opera house over the other - not a bad way to wait. 

 Onto another excellent Ensemble Group shore excursion beginning with a Captain Cook’s two hour boat cruise of the harbour including touring past the North, South and Middle Heads, a more detailed view of the waters we just sailed through on the cruise ship, wonderful. We had a tea/coffee snack break on board at the end of the middle arm of middle head. Pictured here are some of the waterfront residential areas of Sydney as well as other sights seen from this beautiful warm sun drenched day - sorry about that.

Our tour included a detailed behind the scenes visit to the Opera House, a great tour taking us below and into the both the Opera theatre and the Concert theatre as well as a few of the smaller drama theaters, no pictures allowed.

In past visits to Sydney, we have seen a few productions in the Opera Theatre but have never taken in a show in the Concert Theatre until now. At the end of the tour we visited the box office and managed to get excellent tickets to the comedy one man show of Eddie Izzard. Never heard of him but he was excellent but of course we would love to have heard the acoustics of this building with a symphony but we did enjoy what was offered the night that we spent at the Opera House. Sorry no pictures.

 Our tour ended in time for us to catch the 2:00 ferry to Manly Beach, a beautiful resort community about a forty minute ferry ride from Circular Quay. I believe the pictures are enough of a comment for the time we spent here, about three hours including lunch - we had to get back and get ready for the show.