Sydney--Day 1

We left on Saturday, 20 December.  Our flight took 7-1/2 hours and landed at about 0630 (on 21 Dec).  I will mention that we were not prepared for the two hour exodus out of the airport.  We had to stand in a ridiculously long line to have our passport looked at and stamped.  Then, we needed to retrieve our bags and exchange money (with $1000 they will give you a better rate than other amounts and only charge you a 3% fee--I felt like this was a good deal until we hit the ATMs).  Then, we needed to go through security (including Bio-security) and dog sniffing.  After that, we had to go in the opposite direction of the taxi's and pass all the bus, coach, etc terminals to arrive at the mini-buses at Terminal 12.  We paid KST Air Transport AUS $75 to get us all to our hotel.  This was a good deal compared to two taxi's (at about $60 each).  They had a couple other hotel drop offs before ours, but the time was relatively minimal.

We arrived at our hotel, the Holiday Inn at The Rocks.  It is a historical section in Sydney that is literally across the inlet from the Opera House.  We had a fantastic view (fourth floor and higher is probably necessary) and adjoining rooms (for an extra $30 a night fee).  (We would also recommend staying at pricier Shangri-La and/or Four Seasons--didn't look like the Marriott really had the views that the other hotel options right there had).  We dropped off our luggage, since check-in is not until 2:00 p.m.  We had lunch at a Subway a few feet away and shopped the market stalls only there on the weekends.

Once 2:00 hit, we checked in and were back out the door.  We wandered the Royal Gardens and had a one hour Opera House tour at 4:00.  Both venues are about a 10 minute walk.  We had dinner in Circular Quay (the area between our hotel and the Opera House) where all the ferries and cruise ships pull in--we had a cruise ship sitting in our way the first couple days, but not thereafter.  (The cruise ships are very quiet--when we woke up our first morning, it was a different one than what we'd gone to bed viewing and it took several glances out of the window before we realized it.)  We had dinner at City Extra for $152 (which we quickly learned was going to be the normal going rate for 3 adult and 3 kid meals at dinner time).

Hotel and view:

 

 



The Rocks and the weekend market stalls (with lunch at Subway):

 

 

 

 

 Views from Circular Quay:

     

 

 Views of the Opera House:

 From the Royal Gardens:

 From inside the Opera House: