Thursday, December 8, 2022.

We set our alarm for 4:30am, and we were dressed and standing on the 7th deck in the bow by 4:45am. We watched the full moon set behind the big bridge that crosses Sydney harbor.
At first I had a hard time spotting the Sydney opera house in the dark. I realized that it was not illuminated at night. It had a faint grey glow, reflecting off the sky as dawn crept in.

Sydney was a lot bigger than I had expected. Lots of very interesting tall building. Someone took our picture in front of the new casino/ hotel on the waterfront. It looked like Jim had a new party hat on!

By 8am we were checked off our ship and in an Uber, headed for the Grace Hotel. Our hotel was originally built as an office building in the 1920’s. Recently it has had a renovation. Very nice room. Great location in the center of everything.

Our room was not ready, so left our bags with the concierge, and got on the hop on, hop off double decker sightseeing bus. We switched from one line to another, and ended up on Bondi Beach. Gorgeous beach. Cool polar pool at one end with waves crashing into the pool.

we took the bus back to Sydney and jumped off at the Australia Museum. It was an interesting place. Some natural history, some stuff about the Māoris. But why was there a stuffed brown bear on display? None in the southern hemisphere that I know of!

After checking into our hotel, we walked to the King street wharf and took a ferry to Cockatoo Island for a performance of Carmen. It was a bit like Romeo and Juliet mixed with West Side Story and motorcycles pretending to be bulls! We were freezing despite wearing long pants, fleece, hats, and raincoats. Long day! We were exhausted!