SUNDAY, FEB 7TH--SYDNEY

I’m sure Sydney is a great city but we have not been able to see much of it as it has rained pretty much steadily for our two days here. Think it did not rain in city this morning but we were on an 8 hour tour on the Blue Mountains. They are a 2 hour drive west of the city. Mountains were covered with fog and it was raining up there so we could not see a thing but did manage to get wet. We spent an hour & a half at a place called Scenic World where once again we could only see about 300 feet in front of us and only managed to get our feet muddy and wet. Stopped at a small town for lunch but Rebecca & I stayed on the bus as did not want to be standing that long with my knee problem. Funny part is the bus driver did not know we had stayed on and he took off for gas station with radio blaring. While he was fueling bus I got off and ask if he could turn the radio down and he said, “Are you still on the bus?” He was a very nice young man. On the way back to city we stopped at the 2000 Olympic Park. I was wanting to get back so I could walk through “The Rocks”, part of Sydney next to where our ship was docked, and take some pictures. Got back at 4pm but it was just starting to rain again so we gave up. I stopped by the concierge and said we were having problem again with the music from the Horizon Lounge just below our suite. For my CruiseCritic followers that is a negative for deck 6, aft. Vibration does not bother us but music does. On a more positive note, we are sailing at 10pm tonight for Brisbane. Tomorrow will be a day at sea again as we arrive there on Wednesday (our time). Jamie, our cruise director, just said they will be out on deck 5, starboard side, (it is protected from the rain) playing departure music. That will be on deck right below us so will be out on our balcony as we leave Sydney harbor. We should have an incredible view of the Opera House. Speaking of that, I did not tell you about our tour yesterday. We drove through Sydney and our guide gave us an interesting narrative of prominent buildings and its history. At Bondi Beach it was blowing and raining hard so could not get off bus to take any pictures. All the pictures had to be through rain covered bus window while it was moving so did not even try. We did have a VERY nice tour of the Sydney Opera House and got to go into two of the huge auditoriums. So sorry there are not a lot of pictures that I will be adding sometime tomorrow taken in Sydney. Unfortunately, weather forecast for Brisbane is 80% thunderstorms and will be in Cairns on Friday with more thunderstorms. Australia could be a “washout” for our cruise! Wish weather had been better here in Sydney. There is lots to do and see so guess we will have to return someday. As an aside, there are thousands of Chinese visiting Sydney now as apparently it is big destination for them to celebrate the “Chinese New Year”.