February 10-11, 2018 Sydney, Australia

Celebrated for its magnificent natural harbor, the world’s largest, Sydney was founded as a penal colony in 1788. Since then, it has grown into the major cultural center of Australia, beloved for its all-embracing, free-spirited nature.

We have been to this port before, so this became an old friends port, as we spent most of our time with friends. On the first day we spent the day with Helen and Diego DelMarmol, who we had met on out South America cruise early last year.

They picked us up at the port at 10 AM and we spent the day touring with them. We toured beaches. All the while on the South America trip, Diego talked about his beautiful beaches. The first beach was Bronte Beach. It was just a drive by, and my photographer, seemed to not want to take any pictures.

The next beach was Bondi Beach. This is Australia’s’ most famous beach. It has saltwater pools besides the sandy beach. Here we stopped for tea, us for beer.

Next was Tamarrama Beach.

Our next stop was Clovelly Beach, which is the beach where Diego goes every day to swim. The reason he likes it is that they have put seawalls along the beach and the natural rocks at the end make it a narrow passage, where it is hard for sharks to get in. The beach itself is long, so it is easy to swim laps. It also has a salt water pool that is filled by the ocean.

We also had lunch at one of their favorite pubs.

Right around the corner from Clovelly Beach was Gordon Bay. Just a short walk from where we had eaten.

And then back in the car and on to Coogee Beach. Coogee means seaweed in aborigines, hence the name of the beach.

We then did a drive by of Maroubra Beach, whose name means windy in Aboriginese. You tell why it was called that as it had a lot of waves there.

Lastly, we stopped at Little Bay. It not only has a beach but has two beautiful golf courses right along the water. There was also a church there that had a beautiful stained-glass window that overlooked the water.

We then went back to their house to have dinner. We ordered out from a Turkish restaurant and it was delicious. We had Pedes.

Now to backup al little. When we docked in the morning we were at White Bay, a dock a little way from where the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge are located. The opera house is a UNESCO World Heritage Site nestled harbor side like a gleaming white bird taking wing. It was designed by Danish architect Jern Utzon and constructed between 1959 and 1973. As for the bridge, there are many tours that will let you climb over the top of it.

Well, that is not where we were docked, so about 5:30 PM we moved over to Circular Quay, which is where these are located. They said it was for us to see these things, but we think it might be so marketing could get some good pictures of the ship with the bridge and opera house in the background. Here are some night pictures we took when we got back to the ship, which by then had moved.

The next morning, early, we moved back to White Bay. Here are a couple of sunrise pictures.

Docked with us at White Bay was the Holland America ship, the Amsterdam. This is the ship we took our 2015 world cruise on. It is now doing its 2018 World Cruise. We happen to know a few people who are on the ship and one of them got us permission to visit them on the ship in the morning. It was fun to see the ship again.

We came back and had lunch and then went out again. Our ship had a shuttle (water ferry) that took us from White Bay to Circular Key. It says Captain Cook on it in the picture. We were going to meet two other people who were on the 2015 cruise with us and were also on the Amsterdam now. We met them and had a beer with them and got caught up. They are Kathy and Jerry Stansfield from Rockledge, Florida.

We then walked around an area that is called The Rocks. It is a the of land where European settlers chose to step ashore in 1788. The Rocks is essentially the birthplace of modern Sydney. A colorful history, The Rocks evolved from a rowdy, raucous settlement of convicts, soldiers, sailors and street gangs into a thriving, modern precinct.

On the edge of one of the world’s great natural harbors, The Rocks is a popular place to stay and visit with a range of accommodation, attractions, funky bars and restaurants, and Australia’s oldest pubs.

There are a couple of pictures of us on the ferry coming back to our ship. The other couple are from North Carolina, moving to Delaware when they return home. There cabin is three from us.

We then took off right after the Amsterdam at 6 PM. We passed the Opera House and went under the bridge, and then the captain turned the ship around so those on the other side of the ship could see what we saw from ours. Very nice gesture.