07/23-25/2026 – Been there, done that….. but down for it again!
Happy July 23rd and 25th! (but not July 24th, as that day disappeared for us once we crossed the International Dateline.) Have you been to the Land Down Under, where women glow and men plunder? Okay, not quite the same as the song from Men At Work, but, hey! close enough. Coming back to Australia for the first time since COVID kicked us out in 2020, we had a similar itinerary, but hopefully with better results. After the long and arduous journey to get here, we finally arrived and deplaned. Dave – ever the thoughtful planner – had our route via train from the airport to the local station all planned out. You know what they say about the best laid plans J ….trains from the airport were not running today. So, pivoting, we took a shuttle van to the hotel. Arriving way early – like 0900 – we could not check in, but they graciously let us drop off our luggage and we set off to enjoy the day and, most importantly, to NOT FALL ASLEEP. It is always best to combat jet lag by moving until bedtime, so that is what we did. We started moving, and moving, and then some more moving.
First stop is we headed off to find the church for mass this weekend. A mere two blocks later we stopped at St. Patrick’s Church in the heart of Sydney and decided that a 6 pm vigil mass was our best option. We then decided to find the “Crown” a large building with a crown at the top. Along the way we traversed the path by the Sydney harbor where we gawked at the crowds and found it amusing when we ran into a kitschy area that was reminiscent of Clifton Hills, Canada, Pigeon Forge, or a G-rated Vegas. Opting to turn around, we headed back to the hotel, stopping along the way for frozen yogurt at “Yo Chi’s” and then a bit later for some Japanese homemade noodles. Finally back at our hotel, we found that our room was ready and our bags were already in the room waiting for us. Settling in we decided to relax for a few hours, but then we realized we were both ready to fall asleep and 2 pm was way too early for that, so off we headed to find some more future destinations.
Heading in the opposite direction, we soon found the Sydney Opera House. Unlike the last time we were here, it was actually open today. We wandered around finding our next future destination: the meeting point tomorrow for our “Inside Tour” of the opera house. After finding the tour spot, we wandered around and planned our lunch for tomorrow at the theatre. We decided the Midden looked good. After lunch we have tickets to see a play, “Pride and Prejudice…sort of” – apparently a comedy based off the not-so-comedic book by Jane Austin. Now having planned tomorrow out, we pondered what to continue to do today. Well, a cold drink and some people watching on a bench sounded like a good idea. Settling in we sipped out diet cokes and proceeded to watch the people wandering by us. We were trying to count how many different languages we heard just passing by our bench. It was a nice, lovely time for just the two of us… that was until Dave had an entire family settle in right next to him on the bench. Then the rest of the gang stood in front of him while they licked their ice cream cones and had a lively conversation in Hindi *we think*. Time to ease on down, ease on down the road.
Wandering back we stopped at the hotel, got cleaned up and headed for 6 pm mass. The church was beautiful and just seeing the inside was amazing. We then settled into a pew and waited for mass to start. Yes we were early. Again the bed in the hotel room is dangerous when trying to avoid jet lag. It did give us time to try and determine what saints were depicted in the statues lined high above us on the sandstone walls. Apparently the traditional saint statues were imported from France in the early 1900’s. Yep, that is all we know. One of the statues we were pretty sure is Joan of Arc. Since they came from France, yup – that checks out.
Last thing on the list: dinner at Hungry Jack’s (or Burger King as it is known in the US.) A small simple meal and we finally felt it was safe enough to go back to the hotel. Clean up and get ready for bed. A bit before nine pm, the snores were bouncing off the walls in the historic hotel located in the heart of Sydney.