Sydney & the 7th

Posted on by Nancy

Monday, March 3, 3025 – The real name of Sydney Harbour in Australia is Port Jackson. Captain Cook named it after Sir George Jackson in 1770. It’s a natural inlet of the Tasman Sea and is considered to be one of the finest natural harbors in the world. And most of us know it as the home to the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour

Coming in to the harbour

We entered the Harbor around 5am on March 3, and the decks were buzzing with passengers waiting to get their first glimpse of the iconic structures. I like to say we got princess parking, even though it was a Celebrity cruise! We were docked between the Opera House and the Bridge… the views of both were spectacular. 

It takes a while for everything to get inspected and paperwork completed. Around 7am I was able to disembark and step onto my seventh continent! 

My faithful zebra backpack has been with me to all 7 continents!

Fern & Larry disembarked a little later. We’d had a great time together for almost two weeks, and had said our goodbyes the previous evening after dinner. It was a little sad, but we were off to additional adventures that we had been looking forward to, so that made it a little easier. My first adventure was to jump on a big bus and head for the Blue Mountains about an hour east of Sydney. 

The guide was really friendly and fun. His name is Gee Ming Chew. He speaks it quickly and says, ‘you know, like the shoe designer, Jimmy Choo’. He kept things lively throughout the day and everyone had a good time. We returned to the pier and I was able to grab a cab to my hotel. Most of the other people were returning to the ship for a back-to-back cruise to southwestern Australia.

Those were some steep hills
The tree ferns are amazing
Katoomba Falls — never in recorded history have these falls run dry
The three sisters is one (or three) of the biggest highlights of the Blue Montains
Much of the area we saw today was an old coal mine. It’s hard to imagine having to scramble down these incredibly steep hillsides, dig out coal and fill up your buckets, then turn around and scramble back up those hills… Not sure how many times a day they had to do that, but it was grueling.
Wild cockatoos, and boy, are they noisy!

I got checked in to my hotel and decided to take a walk around nearby Darling Harbour, and go up the hill from the harbour to see some of the older buildings around Sydney, such as the Queen Victoria building and St. Andrews church. There are also many jaw-dropping skyscrapers.

After a couple of hours of wandering, I went back to the hotel, changed my shoes and went back out to find a bite to eat. Dinner was OK, but on the way back to the hotel I found one of the best cookies I’ve ever had!  

It was a really nice nightcap