On to Sydney

Obviously I had some blogger issues with my first post so will repost it here.  It took us about 30 hours to get from the Tampa Airport to our hotel in Sydney, Australia but it was well worth the wait.  We fell in love with Sydney.

We have a tradition when we travel to arrive early to the airport, have a toast to our trip and relax a bit before we start our adventure.  Here we are at Tampa International.  Our first leg of the journey took us to Houston Tx where we had a 5 (yep, you read correctly) hour layover.  Next, we flew to LA where we only had 2 hours so dined at the Puck Restaurant and then on for our 14 hour flight to Sydney.  We were fortunate that we could upgrade our seats...at 6'3"+, it is hard for E to get comfy in regular airline seats for more than a few hours.

 Our plane (well, one of them anyway)

 View out the window as we approach Sydney

 We've arrived. 

We could not check into our hotel immediately but they were kind enough to keep our luggage for us while we explored and shopped.  We stayed at a wonderful hotel, the Rendvous Stafford on The Rocks, the historic wharf area of Sydney and about 2 blocks from our cruise ship.  (more pics of our hotel and our views of the city from the balcony is one post down).

I know this looks like far too much luggage but E wore everything but one pair of khakis and I wore everything (and thanks to Clare and her washing machine) more than one except one dress.  And even on our return trip we were still under our allowed luggage weight...yea!

 Street scenes

 Yes! those are people walking across the top of the bridge...um, not on my bucket list! lol

 The Sunday Market was taking place when we arrived so it was a must see.  Reminded me of the ones here at home complete with local entertainment.

We had a lovely day and were sound asleep between 7:30 and 8:00pm.  It was so good to stretch out!