Jim & Barbara Burton Travel: Sydney

Sydney – Final Call,

We arrived back in Sydney and returned our rental car to the airport for the last time and took a taxi to our hotel in World Square. This is a very busy part of the city with Chinatown being close by and revelers by the score. Being the weekend the revelry went on until the early hours of the morning. However, our suite at The Quest was very spacious and well equipped, including a washer and dryer so that I was able to get all the laundry done before we sailed.

Friday evening Jim and I ventured into Chinatown for dinner. This is a very vibrant part of town with great restaurants, market stalls and street entertainment. We had a wonderful meal, strolled through the market stalls and opted for an early night.

Saturday our friends all came into the city, Peter and Stephanie from South Maroota, Vince and Susan from Mosman/Sussex Inlet and Dave and Bev from Nelson Bay/Calgary, Alberta. We had dinner at a lovely cosmopolitan restaurant called Adria at Cockle Bay, Darling Harbour and a great farewell evening with very good friends. During the evening there was a magnificent firework display. What a send off!!!! I am not sure how they knew we were going but we really appreciated it. We bade farewell to our friends from Oz and arranged to meet Dave and Bev for dinner the following night.

Whilst we were back in Sydney for the last time we took a tour of The Opera House, which was very interesting, but no photos allowed. We also went back to the Botanical Gardens and took a free, guided tour of the magnificent New South Wales Government House, with its Beautiful architecture, furnishings and no expense spared. No photos allowed there either. We walked our feet off yet again and took in all the sights one last time.

Monday arrived all too soon and we took a taxi to Circular Quay and embarked on the Celebrity Solstice, an imposing ship more like a floating hotel, accommodating 3,000+ passengers. The ship had been docked in port for two days dwarfing everything around it.

With no more ado we were on board and awaiting our departure and then all of a sudden “ We were sailing, we were sailing………………………..”