February 23rd /24th - Sydney!!

See those little ant-like figures?? Those are bridge climbers! We did it too!! (If you click on the photo you can see them even better!)

The Sydney Opera House at dawn....from our balcony!

We are ready!!

We did it!!

Sydney is SPECTACULAR!!! No…wait…that isn’t a strong enough word….and we just can’t think of one incredible enough to describe it!! We are WAY beyond “gob-smacked!” Definitely the high point (no pun intended, again!) of our visit was getting up at dawn and doing the Bridge Climb. (Although sitting at an outdoor restaurant on the harbour last night with the bridge on one side and a gorgeous full moon rising over the Sydney Opera House was pretty magical too! And then there was having lunch with Academy Award-winning actress Rita Moreno…remember her in “West Side Story”??...who is also traveling on the ship and seems to be quite smitten with Chuck’s jokes…) But now, back to the bridge! Everyone had to pass a breathalyzer test before suiting up. Our jumpsuits were two-tone grey (so that we would blend in with the girders and not distract the motorists below) with a blue (to make us feel stylish!) stripe down the side. We were wired for radio contact with our guide and tethered to a safety line. The weather was perfect and it was an exhilarating experience! (Whew! It’s lucky we didn’t fall off the bridge or we might have had to change our blog address to bridgesUNDERthewater!) Surprisingly…the see-through catwalks and the ascending ladders turned Chuck a little green around the gills….but Susan had no problems at all! I asked him if we could revisit the Sky Jump in Auckland (please reference Chuck’s $10,000 offer under February 15th Auckland entry) but he claims that was a limited time offer!

Nothing on this world trip can possibly compare to our sailaway in Sydney, where we crossed paths once again with our sister, QE2. The “Meeting of the Queens” virtually brought the city to a standstill. The two ocean queens performed a historic “sail past” in front of the Sydney Opera House as Queen Victoria left to continue her maiden around-the-world voyage and QE2 made her final visit exactly 30 years to the day after her first call here in 1978. (She will be sold to Dubai later this year to become a floating hotel.) They greeted each other with a “whistle salute” acknowledging the first and last time these two Cunard Queens will meet in Australian waters. Australian flags were distributed to every stateroom before we arrived in the Land Down Under so there were hundreds of flags fluttering from the decks and balconies. Rousing strains of “Waltzing Matilda” were dancing off the top deck….often drowned out by the noise from the eleven helicopters we could see hovering above from our side of the ship! The shores were lined with people waving and seemingly every seagoing vessel in Sydney was present to escort us out beyond "the Heads" and into the Tasman Sea. It was truly unforgettable!! Words just can't do it justice!