A Short Stay in Sydney

 We were in Sydney from January 15 to 17 before boarding Regent Seven Seas Explorer.

Yes, we're way behind on posting. The internet has not been the greatest in Australia - StarLink may be great where there's lots of coverage, but where they have limited capacity it really isn't very good. Hopefully it will improve as we head further north. (Editor's note - January 29: we are now arriving in Bali and the service is much better!)

I have been able to keep up the sketching; here's the the sketchbook for the train journey:

Once we arrived in Sydney we dropped our luggage with the bell staff at the Shangri-La Hotel and did the paperwork for our check-in. As expected there was no room ready, so we headed out for a walk around The Rocks and Circular Quay and some lunch.

We wondered how well the local restaurants had weathered COVID, as we had last been here just as the world was starting to shut down in March 2020. As the quarantine restrictions in Sydney were about as stringent as they were at home, we thought that some of them may have had to shut down. But that wasn't the case. Even the smaller restaurants in The Rocks were still there and going strong.

Larry was looking for a hamburger, but as we approached the Munich Brauhaus he changed his mind.

No that is NOT one long sausage, but
2 with the ends covered in onions

A Skillet with pork, potatoes and
a fried egg

The weather was as expected, sunny and hot, and we were glad to get to the hotel and checked in. Our room did not face the harbour or the bridge, but rather to the west, over Darling Harbour. That ended up being OK as the ship would be in White Bay, which is on the inside of the bridge.

As our lunch was a good size, we had a plate of charcuterie in the hotel bar on the 36th floor instead of dinner.

As we sat in the bar, we could see dark clouds and lightning in the distance, and watched as a huge rainstorm made its way over Sydney. It was quite the spectacle! Once we were back in our room the rain started pounding on the windows and there were some pretty heavy crashes of thunder. We were hoping that the storm would pass by morning as we had a lunch reservation at Doyle's in Watsons Bay and would have to make our way to the ferry to get there.

That hope was not meant to be. We opened the drapes and found grey skies, fog and the evidence that it had been raining recently. After a light breakfast at the buffet, we donned our most appropriate clothes, picked up an umbrella and strolled off in light drizzle and wind to the ferry terminal.

We arrived at Doyle's at noon, about a half hour before our reservation, but it seemed that more than half of the people leaving the ferry at Watsons Bay were going to the same place we were. They had no trouble giving us a table, and we had a very nice lunch. Not the huge seafood sampler platter like we used to get. They only have one platter and it is way too large for us to finish nowadays. If we had one or two others with us we would have given it a shot. We did see one go to another table where it was being shared in a larger party. We ended up with barramundi and chips, with a stuffed prawn appetizer plate.

Stuffed Prawn appetizer

Barramundi and chips

The view toward downtown - foggy and rainy

Cheesecake with passionfruit sauce

Is this a big enough bowl of ice cream?

The restaurant from the boardwalk

The weather was only slightly better on the way back - no rain, but windy. Once we were back downtown, we walked up to the local pedestrian shopping area and then back down to the hotel. At least we managed to walk off some of the calories we'd consumed in the past week.

We found these two Lorikeets as
we strolled in The Rocks area

We were surprised to find that Regent Explorer was already at her berth in White Bay, along with another ship. We didn't think there was an overnight in the schedule.

Friday arrived - boarding day. Hotel staff had already collected our bags and stored them overnight to take to the ship. There was quite a large group of Regent guests at the hotel, so buses were also arranged to transfer us for the 20 minute ride to White Bay. We didn't realize until we were outside just how windy it had become, and this was even more evident when we reached the cruise pier at White Bay. The wind was literally howling, shaking the huge tent that served as the waiting and check-in area for our ship. 

Once we were on board we found out that the storm we had had, plus other rough weather in the Tasman Sea, had forced Explorer to cancel her call at Hobart and come straight to Sydney, which was why the ship arrived on Thursday. The wind gusts were so high that the captain announced that we would be staying overnight again as the wind was expected to die down somewhat by 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. It got so bad that the Harbour Authority closed off exit from the ship for passengers or crew; not that it was easy to get from the construction zone of a harbour into downtown to start with. It was just dangerous to be going anywhere.

Saturday morning at 11:00 we did finally leave the pier, and for the first time sailed under the Sydney Harbour Bridge on a cruise ship.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge from the other side, with
Baranagaroo Park in front

Part of the Rocks and skyline from the
ship's library

About to cross under the bridge. The bridge climbers
were all stopping to wave at us - and we waved back!

Passing by the Opera House

The captain wasn't kidding when he said the seas were going to be rough as soon as we left the bay - 20 foot waves and a howling wind. We had already missed our stop at Newcastle to go into the Hunter Valley, but they were having exactly the same kind of weather there, both on land and at sea, so it would not have been a pleasant excursion anyway. We now had an extra sea day on our way to Townsville.