Adelaide to Sydney

And here we go again. Our much adored chauffeur, Amalia, had us both collected and delivered to the sirport well in time or our 9.30 am flight to Sydney. Much to our surprise, the queues were not horrendous and neither of us required strip searching to be allowed through the scanners! we headed for coffee and at boarding time headed for our gate, but the flight fromSydney had not arrived as yet so we were delayed by 25 minutes. Whilst we were waiting, Julie decided to check out the Princess app and found that the first day's itinerary for the cruise was available to view. I did not know where to look when she told me that she had booked us for the LGBTIQ catch up! Once I regained my composure and had stopped guffawing, I asked her whether she actually meant to book us for the singles and solos catch up? I'm still chuckling over it! i will keep you posted on what we actually attend...

It as a full flight to Sydney, but thankfully we had strong tailwinds so flight time was only 90 minutes instead of theregular 2 hours, so we actually arrived inSydney on time. We were both relived to see our suitcases arrive on the carousel and then headed to the lifts to take us to the train station. 3 lifts later wewere finally at the station and headed to Central which I had googled and told me that it was then a 10 minute walk to our hotel. would you believe it, but we ended up sitting next to a couple from Melbourne who are going to be on the same cruise. After another 2 lifts we found ourselves at Elizabeth Street, and it was then a 10 minute walk to our hotel, the Vibe,in Goulburn Street. much to our pleasure, our room was ready even though check in wasnt meant to ne until 3 and we were there about 1pm. the room is really nice and a quick check of the maps indicated that we were in a top spot. We headed downstairs to the dining room and were treated like princesses by the maitre'd. A late lunch and wine were ordered and once fully sated, we headed out exploring in the 37 degree heat! My map reading skills let us down as we intended heading to the Chinese gardens but I crossed the road and headed up Elizabeth Street rather than turning left out of the hotel on Goulburn Street. Eventually we found Martin Place where a lovely big Christmas tree was displayed and then a u turn back up George Street until we reached Chinatown and then the garden.

It really was very pretty and very peaceful, but became very humid and Julie didnt like the wildlife (lizards) throughout the park.

We were both tiring quickly by this stage so headed back to the hotel. Up to our room to rehydrate and check how many steps we had done - over 11,000, almost 8 kilometres in the heat! We then headed back to the bar where thankfully it was happy hour, so we had a couple of vinos, a very light dinner and then back to our room for showers and flopping on the beds. Photos of our day will have to wait until I can work out how to transfer photos from my android phone to this ipad! An early night is called for so that we are much refreshed and ready for a full day of adventures in Sydney tomorrow.