The Loooooong Flight Home

Well, after a 1 day delay, we did make it back to San Francisco today.  But the flight left lots to be desired. We were on a totally packed 747 - not a spare seat to be had - and when they made seat assignments for this replacement flight they did not keep couples together so initially Mary and I were in different rows.  After some elevator capacity issues at the hotel which caused delays at getting checked out and out to the bus, very long lines at Qantas check-in (normal flights plus our make-up 747 plus another make-up 747 headed to London), the seat assignment issue about put us over the edge.  They sent a note to the gate staff to move us around which eventually happened, but not without considerable stress in the interim. 

We were in seats B and C (middle and aisle) so no wall to lean against to sleep and no open seat like we had on our outbound flight.  The seats seemed closer together on this plane as well - I don't recall having an issue with my knees hitting the seat in front of me when flying to Australia.  Then once they served dinner and hot chocolate and people were supposed to quiet down, the plane remained very noisy.  People talking out loud, babies and small children crying every few minutes, and lots of general commotion removed any possibility of sleeping until about 8 hours into the 14 hour flight. So it was not nearly as pleasant as our outbound flight.  I think things might have been better had we not had the 1 day delay since we suspect Qantas added more passengers to our flight since they delayed the normal flight 73 by a hour to make room at the gate for our flight.  Mary's reaction:  "next time Business class".

I think I slept a bit on the flight but it was not high quality sleep; I don't think Mary slept at all.  So we're a bit groggy today.  I took a 1 hour nap once we got checked in here in San Francisco and we're planning to stay up for a few hours then to get to sleep by 8:00 this evening to help with the time zone transition. 

Tomorrow is "back to Detroit" day (NWA flight 342) with Wednesday being a get caught up at home day before heading back to work on July 3rd.  So our long Australia vacation is drawing to a close.  I watched the Australia coast disappear from view this morning with many regrets about leaving, yet I knew it was time to go.

Still in Sydney!

Well, we thought we were at our last day in Sydney, but then things happened.

As we went to the airport I joked to Mary that we should volunteer to be bumped since we have an extra day in San Francisco.  As we neared our boarding time an announcement of a 15 minute delay due to equipment issues was made.  15 minutes later, it became an indeterminate delay. The next announcement was the kicker:  "We're sorry to announce that we have to open up the plane to effect repairs and no alternate aircraft is available.  Your flight has been delayed to 12:30 p.m. tomorrow.  We will bus you to a hotel, provide supper and breakfast before busing you back to the airport.  We apologize for any inconvenience".

I cannot begin to imagine what Qantas had to do to find a hotel with 200+ available rooms and the logistics to move a fairly full 747 load of people to a hotel overnight.

So, we are now staying in Novotel Sydney, right on Darling Harbor!  Talk about a step up from the places I booked!  

So now I just need to call our place in San Francisco to cancel Sunday night since we obviously won't be needing that room.

Back to Sydney

Well, Mary and I are all checked into the the Sullivan's Hotel.  It's not a classy place, but very functional and conveniently located in Sydney.  I do admit that our motels during this trip have been a class (or two) below where Mary and I typically stay, but since we're in motels in Australia for 13 days, I went for "reasonable economy", even so they've run well over $100/day.  You could easily spend $200/day for motels to get "3 star" places and I was not inclined to spend that much.  So we ended up in Cairns having a 2 mile walk into town.  But on the positive front, we sure are getting our exercise!  LOL

We are both very impressed with Qantas!  For example on today's flight which left Cairns at 1:10 and arrived at Sydney at 4:10, we got a lunch!  I had a nice lunch (which came with a bottle of water) but a small can of soda and a cup of tea as well!  We were then surprised when they came around with ice cream bars!  The service is top notch, as well, with luggage arriving very promptly and extremely courteous staff.  I can't recall the last time I had a meal on a US airline - even on a 7 hour flight to Anchorage in 2005;  yet here we get one that didn't even cross a mealtime.  I sure wish they flew in the US...

We've been blessed with excellent weather while in Australia.  Our first 5 days in Newcastle had great weather with the only rainy day being last Sunday, our travel day to Brisbane.  During the 7 days we were in Brisbane and Cairns, we had nothing but sunshine (and lots of wind!) but during those days, the Sydney/Newcastle area had several rainy days.  But now that we're back in Sydney, the 10 day forecast shows nothing but sunshine!  This could have not worked out better if we planned it.

We're going to spend tomorrow getting used to the Sydney transportation system.  We have two bus lines that pick up right in front of our hotel that will take us most places we want to go.  Tomorrow we're going to buy a 7 day bus/ferry/rail pass for the whopping price of $43/person so we don't have to worry about paying fares each day, then take the Manly ferry under the Sydney Bridge to Manly Beach to visit Oceanworld.  

Wednesday is the Taronga Zoo, Thursday, Sydney Tower and the Bridge Climb.  On Friday or Saturday we'll probably take a 1 day Blue Mountain tour. 

So those are our preliminary plans.  Stay tuned for details as we explore Sydney.