It was cold! Coming from the desert to the winter sure makes a huge difference. I wish I had packed warmer clothing, but that was just too hard, so I wore 3 shirts the entire trip and my rain jacket. I never took off the rain jacket, so no one ever knew.
We arrived on Sunday and the airport and train station were dead. We thought we must be doing something wrong, where are all the people? We collectedmour luggage but got stopped at immigration. I forgot to put our middle names on the online visas! (but they still let us in). We boarded the train, rode 15 minutes until our stop, got off, looked up the street and there was our hotel!!!!! I love it when it is that easy! Thank you Lord! Our room was nice and we had a refridgerater so we were able to buy milk at cereal and eat in our hotel...the only problem is that it is expensive! We paid $11US of a box of cereal! Our hotel allowed us to check in early and we went and had our 4 hour recovery nap! We woke up in time to go have dinner in a area called The Rocks. It was very nice and had great views of the Harbour and Opera House.
Day 2
We did a lot of exploring this day, however, Will's leg was still bothering him. We walked slow and tried to stay off of it, but it would spasm quite a bit and give him pain. We discovered in Dubai that his heal had totally bruised up. Dave gave him a ace bandage and he slept with an ice pack....but only while in Dubai. That first day in Sydney, we explored Darling Harbour, went to the aquarium, saw a church, and went up the Sydney Tower. That night, I had already booked tickets for the Sydney Symphony. We saw Holst's The Planets and some flute guy. The hall was very impressive and it was really fun to to see a Symphony. It was fun to be all dresses up (and cold) standing on the terrece of the opera house looking at the Haurbor Bridge. We got home, did laundry and went to bed. I think jet lag really hit me hardest here.
Day 3
While in Dubai, we ran into some folks who recommended going to the Blue Mountains. This was probably one of the best tours we have taken so far. It was a packed day full of interesting facts and sights. The tour company picked us up at our hotel and we drove 2 hrs to the Blue Mountains. We stopped at a zoo and were able to pet kangaroos and koala bears. It was a very interactive zoo and if we were to go to Syndey's zoo, we would not have been able to get this king of experience. The kangaroos were behind this railings and all the sudden, they would hop right past you. I even saw a baby kangroo in its mother's pouch. It was very cold that day, but we still had a great time. Following the zoo, we stopped at a look out point for the 3 Sisters mountain range, it waw incredibly windy and cold so I didn't stay long. Aparently it had snowed the previous week and the wind was so bad, it blew over trees. The tour then took us to the rain forrest..not a tropical rainforrest, but s true Australian rain forrest witha tree canopy and everything. The train ride going down was so steep, we were practically standing on the bench infront of us. We then walked through the forrest and learned all about the eucaliptis trees and mining in the area. We also had a fantastic lunch! Will and I were super excited to eat normal (close to American food) i was afraid kangroo or crocodile would be on the menu. We had aleady seen that on some pizza menus! On the way back to Syndey we took a cruise..it was nice, but too dark since it was winter so we really didn't see much. We still hadn't seen the Opera house in the daylight yet!
Day 4
Finally! We got to the Opera House and Bridge during daylight! The only unfortunate part was that it was cloudy when it had been completely clear the previous two days! We booked a tour for the opera house and were able to learn about the building history and see some of the other performance venues. My only suggestion...don't visit a famous building after Dubai, you won't appreciate it as much. We saw these incredible, unbelievable buildings in Dubai which made the Opera House seem like nothing. For its day, it was impressive, just not after Dubai!. We also took a ferry and went to Manly. It is a cute little beach town right on the ocean, the beach was really nice, it was just really cold. Will let was still bothering him, so we decided to head back to the airport. We arrived at 4 only to find out that our airline was delayed 4 hrs. The last major flight we took was with Jet Star, a budget airlines. They had the best deals, but no frills. So I was spoiled with Singapore airlines and then we switch and took a budget flight. On these flights, you have to pay for everything, no water, no movie, no blankets...no fun. luckily, we planned ahead and downloaded a movie, I had my pillow and brought subway on the flight. We survived.
Will's leg
When we got to the airport, I noticed that they had a medical clinic! Will's leg had been bothering again and the tour guide from the Blue Mountains Tour had scared us about Deep vein thrombosis. She was a former nurse and when she saw Will hobbling around, she really scared us about blood clots. The bruising was healing and we had been on 2 long flights already, but I didn't want Will to fall over dead on a budget airlines, I'm sure we would have had to pay for a bandaid if we needed it. The doctor thought he was at low risk for dot, but gave him a blood thinner just incase. Will's leg was healing since the bruising was going down, so now it is a matter of rest and staying off of it. (yeah right...you try telling that to my husband...the guy who can't resist a swing dance or a chance to climb 4,000 ft 2 days after injuring it). The doctor said, "you must have a high pain tolerance...,". Due to his injury, we couldn't do things like go snow skiing in Dubai, so Will said "we will just have to come back!". I'm good with that!
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