mlchad147
- Mar 10
- 8 min read

March 8, 2024–Sydney, Australia

What a day. I still can’t believe how much we jammed into a single day in this amazing city. When we finally packed it in my pedometer had recorded nearly 20,000 steps, and I loved the places every one of them took me.

When I left off in my previous blog post, we had just docked at Ives Steps, almost directly under the Harbour Bridge, after a splendid tour of the harbor (I’m spelling it harbor unless I’m referring specifically to the bridge) on our tender. It was a brilliant, sunny morning, and properly sunscreened, wearing big hats and sunglasses, we boarded our tour bus for a four hour excursion around the city.

After taking a circuitous route around the city, which helped us orient ourselves for our later adventures, we headed south and made our way out to Watson’s Bay, where there is a beautiful cliffside overlook of the harbor and city. If you’re ever in Sydney and planning a day at Bondi Beach, definitely stop here first. It’s on the way, and worth spending a few minutes to enjoythe view.

Continuing south, it was a short drive to Bondi Beach, which may be Australia’s most popular beach. The wide, white sand beach is in the classic horseshoe shape, and the sparkling blue water is perfect for swimming thanks to an enormous shark net strung all the way across the inlet along the reef. You can’t see the net, but we were assured it’s there, and there certainly were a lot of swimmers in the water enjoying themselves in the safety it provides. Shark attacks are a big deal in Australia, so the safety net, along with Bondi’s beauty and proximity to Sydney, explains its popularity. If you’re a beach person and are planning a visit to Sydney, Bondi Beach is a must. We didn’t have time for a swim, but Michele did roll up her pant legs and wade in for a photo.

Speaking of musts, our next stop brought us back into the city proper for a guided tour of the Opera House. To say that the Opera House is iconic is an understatement. The structure is world renowned, and no trip to Sydney is complete without a visit here. Did you ever wonder what those sail-like wings on the outside were made of? I hadn’t, but now I’m going to give you one of those delightful little facts that you can toss around to impress or annoy people at your next cocktail party. The roof of the Opera House is covered with tiles, and there are exactly 1,056,006 of them. How about that. I’ll even provide a closeup photo below so you can describe them. That, friends, is why this blog is so valuable, and you have my commitment that I will continue to provide you with utterly useless information for the duration of this cruise.

Ah, but back to the Opera House. We did go inside too, and received quite a history lesson from our guide about the building’s construction and the remarkable amount of controversy surrounding the design, cost and control over the project. No need to recite all that here. You can look it up if you’re interested. I’ll just say that happily for the world, the finished product is spectacular. The inside of the building is quite interesting, though certainly not as iconic as the exterior. I’ll post a couple photos below. Interestingly, there are actually three theaters inside—a small one for dramas, a larger one for operas, and the largest for big performances. We were able to go inside the two smaller ones, but the largest was in use for performances by school students, so that one was closed to us. I’ll just close my description of the Opera House by saying that a visit here is absolutely worth your time if you’re in Sydney, and book a tour with a guide if you can. It’s worth it.

From the Opera House we took a delightful stroll through the Royal Botanic Gardens, making our way to Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair. This is another of those iconic places in Sydney, and was something we were looking forward to seeing. Lachlan Macquarie was the governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821, and one of his claims to fame is that he named a lot of things after himself. There’s Macquarie this and Macquarie that all over the place, but that’s another story, and I’m in danger here of wandering off on another tangent, so back to the chair. Long story short, there is a seat and steps carved into a huge rock at a prominent point overlooking the harbor and city. One of the things to do when you’re in Sydney is to admire the Gardens, then walk to the overlook and have your photo taken sitting in Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair. We did both, and loved it.

That was the last stop on our tour, but on the way back to the pier we were able to hop off the bus at St. Mary’s Cathedral, from where we were able to continue on our own. St. Mary’s is a beautiful Gothic structure, and we took some time to walk inside and admire its quiet beauty. We’ve visited several Catholic cathedrals on this cruise, and they were all wonderful. Regardless of your religious affiliation, if you’re visiting a city that hosts a cathedral, stop in for a look.

St. Mary’s borders on Hyde Park, a pretty, tree covered patch of greenery with benches and a lovely fountain in the center. We took a break here, and I wandered over to join the spectators and kibitzers watching a chess match on a giant chess board. It was interesting to watch people walk out onto the board and point at various pieces, offering wanted or unwanted advice to the players. After a few minutes we moved on, for we still had much that we wanted to do.

From Hyde Park we walked back towards the waterfront on Pitt Street and George Street, passing several high end stores—Cartier comes to mind—including, interestingly, an official NBA store, selling the jerseys of the league’s big stars. I knew basketball was popular in Australia, but I didn’t expect to see an NBA store on one of the most expensive streets in Sydney. But hey, that’s part of the fun of traveling. This whole area, including the Opera House and the Bridge, is the oldest part of the city, and is known as The Rocks.

Down at the bottom of Pitt Street we found what we were looking for, the Post Office, where we were able to buy a stamp and mail a postcard home. We try to mail one from every country we visit, and while we haven’t gotten all of them, we’ve done pretty well.

That mission accomplished, it was time for a very late lunch, and there was no better place for that than Sydney’s oldest pub, Fortune of War, which dates back to 1828. We treated ourselves to excellent burgers and fries, and I had a draft Tooheys Old, one of Australia’s oldest beers. Tooheys Old has been brewed since 1869, and I can report that they’ve clearly perfected the formula, because it was delicious. I resisted the urge to purchase a Fortune of War tee shirt on the way out, mostly because the bar was pretty busy and it probably would have taken a while to make the transaction. Just as well. I certainly don’t need another tee shirt.

Revived and refreshed, we did some shopping, meandering in the general direction of the Harbour Bridge, our next destination. The Rocks has great shopping, including in some side alleyways and inside plazas, and it was a lot of fun to poke around. And yes, I did buy another ball cap. Unfortunately, I can’t help myself, but it really is a nice hat. At least there’s that.

It takes a lot of steps to work your way up from city level to the Harbour Bridge, but fortunately you don’t do it all at once. It’s up a flight of stone steps, cross a street, find the next flight of stone steps, and so on until you finally reach the walkway, which is at the same level as the vehicular traffic. We walked out to the middle of the bridge, past the first of the two huge stone piers that support the massive structure, and spent some time talking in the spectacular view. The bridge is the perfect place to look out over the Opera House and take in the harbor and city skyline. We lingered there for quite a while, just savoring the fact that we were standing on the Harbour Bridge overlooking Sydney, Australia. Definitely another “pinch me” moment.

I’ve been asked by a couple people if we did the bridge walk, which is a thing where you’re clippped onto a harness to prevent you from falling and led by a guide up a couple hundred steps to the top of the bridge. We know some folks who did it, and the view from up there must certainly be spectacular, but we passed for a couple reasons. The first, and most important, was that doing so would have taken away the time we needed to do much of what we otherwise were able to do, a trade off we weren’t willing to make. I’m not a big fan of heights either, which made the decision easier. Besides, we were able to walk out across the bridge at traffic level, which was up pretty high and awesome in its own right. Maybe if we come back someday and have more time.

By this point it was late in the afternoon, approaching early evening, and tired but happy, we knew it was time to start working our way back down into the city and out to the pier, where the Serenade was now docked, the Virgin cruise ship having relinquished the pier to us. Still, we didn’t hurry, and wandered through the Rocks again before ultimately crossing the Cahill Expressway and boarding the ship.

The day was not over, though. We had enough time to clean up a bit—to say we were hot and sweaty would be putting it mildly—and get a bite to eat before dropping into the comfy seats in the main theater for the evening finale. Royal Caribbean had brought a troupe of aboriginal dancers onboard to perform for us, and they were wonderful. I was fascinated by the didgeridoo, a long, hollowed out wooden wind instrument that reminded me at first of a South African vuvuzela, though it was capable of a surprising variety of rich sounds and tones. Playing one looks like fun, but it also looks very difficult.

So, I’ll end where I started. What a day. Sydney is incredible, and if you like to travel you should consider putting this amazing city on your bucket list. I don’t feel like we wasted a minute of our day, and I can’t believe how much we crammed into it. And there would still be plenty more to do if we ever return, so who knows.

Right now we need a good night’s sleep, because tomorrow we’re in Newcastle, with plenty to see and do there as well. So until then, hooroo, which is Australian slang for goodbye.

Part of the view from Watson’s Bay. Beautiful overlook.

Bondi Beach is beautiful, and more importantly, shark free.

Bondi Beach.

Michele gave Bondi Beach her seal of approval.

The Opera House is just as beautiful up close as it is from a distance.

There are 1,056,006 tiles on the roof. Now you know what they look like.

One more look at the outside.

Inside the main lobby of the Opera House. Cool design inside the building too.

Inside the opera hall. This is the middle sized of the three theaters inside the Opera House. The main performance theater is even larger, but it was being used and we couldn’t go inside.

Neat spider sculpture outside the New South Wales Museum of Art. Unfortunately, many of the real spiders in Australia are deadly. Happily, we didn’t see any.