Discovering Sydney!

The past two days have been very eventful!

The things that I enjoy about traveling are seeing the sights, learning the history and meeting new people and finding out about their personal stories.

Within the past 48 hours, I have done it all.  It is amazing the information that you learn about someone by just asking the right questions.  On Sunday evening, as Kenny and I sat in the United Club, we met a lady.  She is originally from London, her husband is from Ireland and she is currently living in Singapore with her husband and 2 sons.  She flies to the US every 3 months or so for her job in gas/oil.

As I got on the plane, I introduced myself to the lady who was going to be sitting next to me for the next 15 hours.  Her name was Luna and she was Arabic, grew up in Bethlehem and has been living in Melbourne, Australia for the past 26 hours.  She retired from teaching 2nd grade a few years ago. She had been in San Francisco for the past three weeks to visit her daughter who recently moved there about 4 months ago.

After watching 2 movies and sleeping some, we landed in Sydney about 8:30 a.m.  It was great to be on land and to be able to stretch my long legs.

After we located our luggage and went through customs, we walked out of the airport into the warm weather.  The humidity, the sun and the wind felt great.

We got to the Hilton and the young lady who checked us in was from Colorado and had graduated from University of Colorado in Boulder.  She had been living in Australia for about a year.  Small world!

Another delightful young lady that Kenny and I met was working at the Cafe at the Hilton.  She is from Saigon.  Her two sisters live in Missouri and her parents and brother still live in Saigon.  She has never been to the United States and she wants to come visit her sisters, as well as come visit us in Colorado.

With all the interesting people we have met, we have also enjoyed the sights.

Sydney is a beautiful city and it reminds us so much of Honolulu and New York City(two of my favorite cities).  Sydney is the state capital of New South Wales and is one of the most populous city(5,000,000) in Australia.  The metropolis surrounds the world's largest natural harbor.  Sydney is one of the most expensive cities in the world, but it is also ranks 10th in the world for quality of living.

The architect of the Sydney Opera House is spectacular.  It is such a beautiful site with the Sydney Harbour in the background.  The construction was started in March 1959 and opened in October of 1973.  The building consists of multiple performance venues.

Another impressive sight was the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  This bridge is a steel bridge which crosses the harbour and connects the central business district and the North Shore.  The construction on the bridge was started back in July of 1923 and was completed in March 1932.  This bridge is the sixth longest spanning arch bridge in the world and the tallest steel arch bridge, measuring 134m(440 feet) from top to waterlevel.

The architect throughout the city is beautiful.  There is so much to see and just not enough time.

We will be boarding on our 12 day cruise to the islands of New Caledonia and Vanuatu within the next day.

Hard to believe that Christmas Day is in 3 days!  I am missing my family and friends, but I am also enjoying meeting new friends!