Today is our first full day on board, and we are at sea all day, as well as tomorrow. Before we boarded the Noordam yesterday, we had time in the early morning to walk around the Opera House, which was only a short distance from our hotel. It was impressive being up close to this iconic building, a recognizable image all over the world of Sydney.
The walk around the Circular Quay has a Writer’s Walk embedded with bronze plaques about the size of large manhole covers, recognizing writers from Twain to Michener to local Australian writers whose works were briefly described but so intrigued me as to make me want to find a bookstore on my return to Sydney. Here’s a sample:
As we wandered around the walkway we came to the outermost point on the walk, and spotted this bird preening it’s plumage at the end:
Just around the corner on the bayside walk is the Queen Elizabeth II gate, an entry that passes a lovely botanical garden which we must also explore on our return. It features an exhibit of carnivorous plants, as these huge images of Darlingtonia spp advertise:
Not far from the Gate we also encountered another interesting bird:
Finally, we had to hurry back to our hotel as we had dawdled overlong reading the dozens of Writer’s plaques, and we didn’t finish. But we will when we return!
It was time to head to the ship as we were boarding early as Mariners, and were eager to go aboard. Our ship was anchored away from the international terminal in Circular Quay because ships too large to fit under the famous steel arched Sydney Harbour Bridge moored there, but the Noordam, being a smaller cruise ship, just fit under the bridge and could be moored deeper in the inlet.
Onboard in suite 5071, we found out that the sail away party had to be moved under cover because of the rain, but eventually we sailed under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and out to sea.
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