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.

Our last day in Sydney

Well, the Australia portion of our vacation is at an end. We had some last minute souvenir shopping to do today in Darling Harbor so we got that out of the way in the morning, then got dressed up for the Bjorn Again (ABBA Tribute band) concert at the Opera House.  The concert was good - very energetic - and we enjoyed it a lot, especially attending an event in the Opera House.

After that we took a ferry under the Sydney bridge to the north end of Darling Harbor, found a nice place for supper, then took a bus back to our hotel - and started packing. 

Earlier this week we feared we'd have to ship a package home, but it now looks like everything will fit into our 3 suitcases and we have a spare carry on bag we can use if need be.

So tomorrow is our loooooooong day (36 hours from when we get up until we see a sunset in San Francisco) so that will be a challenge.  Hopefully we can catch a few hours sleep on the plane like we did on the way to Australia.

The Blue Mountains

Today we took the bus to Central Station, then caught a train to Katoomba where we got passes on an excursion bus to see various places in the Blue Mountains.  The trails involve lots of up and down hiking and most of the once marked "easy" should be "moderate" in my book.  We didn't have any trouble with them but they involved lots of steps, rough terrain, and some very large steps.

We did walk a few trails and took a miners train ride down a 52 degree slope (felt more line 70 degrees!) and a tram back up from the bottom of the valley.  Even tho we were prepared for colder weather, we were both rather chilled as the high for the day was just 50 F.  Guess we're getting a bit spoiled.  LOL

Anyhow, we enjoyed seeing them a lot and had a nice day.

Australian Currency

This the first vacation where we've had to deal with foreign currency.  Previously on cruises, everyone took US $ so we did not have to exchange money.  Australia has very colorful currency and some unusual coinage which took some getting used to.

The coins are arranged highest to least value as you go down the picture.

• no pennies
• smallest bill is a $5
• the bills are different sizes
• no quarters: 5, 10, 20, 50 cent pieces in ascending size
• the $2 coin is smaller that the $1 coin

It just seems so weird to get any change under $5 as coins.  Mary and I keep building up lots of value in coins since the $2 coins are so small and you get lots of them.

Anyhow I thought you might enjoy seeing what the currency looks like.

I do want commend my Charles Schwab representative - he was very helpful in suggesting I open a Schwab Bank account since they have very favorable exchange fees.  I just used the debit card as a credit card for all our expenses and I could do ATM withdrawals to obtain Australian currency.  At one airport purchase they wanted to do the exchange for us, but by having them charge me in Australian$ we saved $5 on a $110 purchase. 

Thinking about home

As I woke up this morning I realized that we only have two more full days in Australia.  As they say, "all good things must come to an end"...  It's be a fabulous vacation so far and we have the Blue Mountains today and a "misc stuff "day tomorrow with the ABBA concert in the afternoon as a highlight.

So we'll be home in a few days, after spending 2 days in San Francisco to help with the time change adjustment (and because that's when I could get the free flight on NWA...) then back to the daily grind.  In some ways that will be nice, but in others....

Visiting the Opera House

This morning Mary and I toured the Sydney Opera House.  It was a very enjoyable and informative tour.  They included several videos about how the design was selected, construction issues, and current issues.  The story was quite amazing as were many of the construction details.

We did see the theater where John Denver performed (which made someone very happy), but were unable to take pictures of it since a band was rehearsing. 

On our way out Mary spotted a poster about an ABBA Concert called Bjorn Again.  She was disappointed that we could not see them in Detroit since they were appearing in June while we were in Australia.  I looked and saw they were performing on June 28th, this coming Saturday.  Since that was a somewhat open day, we bought tickets for the afternoon matinee so now we will actually attend a performance in the Opera House!  Very cool!