Cousin Orville
Inventor of Air Cooling
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2000
Prenight 1 - Sydney
We've arrived in Sydney! Thanks for joining us. Last we met Gavin and I were in China a year ago, and SE Asia before that. I'll keep the same format I've used in the past and post the photos after the daily report. I'll try to keep this as "live" as I can, but it sounds from others on this ABD that wifi availability becomes a bit sketchy outside of Sydney. So we'll see how we do.
Now I can say I've flown the longest commercial flight in the world. 16hrs 50 min from Dallas to Sydney. We actually started in our home town of Houston, and before that I worked in the morning. So, it was quite the long day. It was kind of exciting getting ready to board the Qantas flight. I had heard great things about Qantas, and it was our first time on an A380 (the double decker plane). It's a massive plane. Even sitting next to the other international flights, it towers over all the planes. We flew economy. So, I can't report to how amazing business class was, but it certainly looked wonderful. We were seated upstairs. All the lower level is economy, and about 3/4 of the upstairs is first class and business class. There's just a small section in the back carved out for economy. That's were we set up camp for the next 16+ hrs. Thankfully the flight was late at night. Gavin slept very well. I slept ok. Watched Godfather I and II and Age of Ultron. You definitely have time on your hands to catch up on movies
We arrived just after dawn in Sydney. Passport Control took about 45min - ugh. But everything was otherwise smooth. We still had to wait for luggage anyway, so even if we had gotten through passport faster, it wouldn't have made much difference. We grabbed our bags, got in a taxi, and into Sydney we went.
The ABD starts in Cairns up north, but we elected to do a 3 nights in Sydney first. We're staying at the Park Hyatt, which was pricey but worth it. As I type this, I'm staring out at the Opera House lit up at night. Great hotel. Awesome view. They had our room waiting for us which I was shocked at as it was maybe 8am. After checking in and cleaning up after the flight, we headed out to see Sydney. Gavin has gotten into geocaching at home, so we started with a hunt nearby.
Afterwards we headed to The Rocks around the hotel which is a historic and touristy area. It was Saturday and they had a market set up selling trinkets and souvenirs. Onward we went towards Circular Quay where all the ferries sail in and out of. We had lunch at one of the many seafood places along the Quay. I had fish and chips. It was very fresh and tasty. From there we took a ferry across the harbour to Taronga Zoo. The ferry ride was very pleasant to sail into the harbour and past the Opera House to the other side. When we got off the ferry there was someone from the zoo that was recommending people take the entrance that you walk to a couple minutes away rather than taking the Gondola up to the main entrance because the line for the gondola was long. I can assure you that is a mistake. Just wait in line and take the gondola. See, the zoo is built along a steep hill. Everyone that takes the Gondola starts the top at the main entrance and works their way down. Everyone that enters through the lower entrance has to walk uphill through the entire zoo. We still has an amazing time, but just ignore the attendant if they suggest that. It really is a unique zoo with obviously a strong Australian focus. Gavin particularly enjoyed watching the saltwater croc swim around. I liked the penguin exhibit.
By the time we got back to the hotel it was probably 5:00pm. We decided do dinner at the hotel at "The Dining Room". It was very nice, fine dining. Probably a bit much for a first night dinner, but on they other hand they were convenient and they had a children's menu, so Gavin could get a good meal which he devoured. I got an app of Kangaroo which I was assured by our server was very tasty and fancy scallops as my main. The kangaroo was good... not life changing. Tasted a little gamey, but otherwise is pretty nondescript. I offered some to Gavin but he passed as he just saw them hopping around earlier in the day. The scallops were outstanding. We hit the hay probably around 7:30 which I counted as a huge success. We both woke up in the middle of the night, but thankfully got back to bed and otherwise had a great night sleep.
We've arrived in Sydney! Thanks for joining us. Last we met Gavin and I were in China a year ago, and SE Asia before that. I'll keep the same format I've used in the past and post the photos after the daily report. I'll try to keep this as "live" as I can, but it sounds from others on this ABD that wifi availability becomes a bit sketchy outside of Sydney. So we'll see how we do.
Now I can say I've flown the longest commercial flight in the world. 16hrs 50 min from Dallas to Sydney. We actually started in our home town of Houston, and before that I worked in the morning. So, it was quite the long day. It was kind of exciting getting ready to board the Qantas flight. I had heard great things about Qantas, and it was our first time on an A380 (the double decker plane). It's a massive plane. Even sitting next to the other international flights, it towers over all the planes. We flew economy. So, I can't report to how amazing business class was, but it certainly looked wonderful. We were seated upstairs. All the lower level is economy, and about 3/4 of the upstairs is first class and business class. There's just a small section in the back carved out for economy. That's were we set up camp for the next 16+ hrs. Thankfully the flight was late at night. Gavin slept very well. I slept ok. Watched Godfather I and II and Age of Ultron. You definitely have time on your hands to catch up on movies
We arrived just after dawn in Sydney. Passport Control took about 45min - ugh. But everything was otherwise smooth. We still had to wait for luggage anyway, so even if we had gotten through passport faster, it wouldn't have made much difference. We grabbed our bags, got in a taxi, and into Sydney we went.The ABD starts in Cairns up north, but we elected to do a 3 nights in Sydney first. We're staying at the Park Hyatt, which was pricey but worth it. As I type this, I'm staring out at the Opera House lit up at night. Great hotel. Awesome view. They had our room waiting for us which I was shocked at as it was maybe 8am. After checking in and cleaning up after the flight, we headed out to see Sydney. Gavin has gotten into geocaching at home, so we started with a hunt nearby.
Afterwards we headed to The Rocks around the hotel which is a historic and touristy area. It was Saturday and they had a market set up selling trinkets and souvenirs. Onward we went towards Circular Quay where all the ferries sail in and out of. We had lunch at one of the many seafood places along the Quay. I had fish and chips. It was very fresh and tasty. From there we took a ferry across the harbour to Taronga Zoo. The ferry ride was very pleasant to sail into the harbour and past the Opera House to the other side. When we got off the ferry there was someone from the zoo that was recommending people take the entrance that you walk to a couple minutes away rather than taking the Gondola up to the main entrance because the line for the gondola was long. I can assure you that is a mistake. Just wait in line and take the gondola. See, the zoo is built along a steep hill. Everyone that takes the Gondola starts the top at the main entrance and works their way down. Everyone that enters through the lower entrance has to walk uphill through the entire zoo. We still has an amazing time, but just ignore the attendant if they suggest that. It really is a unique zoo with obviously a strong Australian focus. Gavin particularly enjoyed watching the saltwater croc swim around. I liked the penguin exhibit.
By the time we got back to the hotel it was probably 5:00pm. We decided do dinner at the hotel at "The Dining Room". It was very nice, fine dining. Probably a bit much for a first night dinner, but on they other hand they were convenient and they had a children's menu, so Gavin could get a good meal which he devoured. I got an app of Kangaroo which I was assured by our server was very tasty and fancy scallops as my main. The kangaroo was good... not life changing. Tasted a little gamey, but otherwise is pretty nondescript. I offered some to Gavin but he passed as he just saw them hopping around earlier in the day. The scallops were outstanding. We hit the hay probably around 7:30 which I counted as a huge success. We both woke up in the middle of the night, but thankfully got back to bed and otherwise had a great night sleep.
