Spectacular Sydney--Day 1

Sydney ranks as one of the 10 most livable cities in the world and the city Sara has visited the most outside the United States (three times and the city Ken has visited the most is London, where he completed his junior year of college.) Except for the extremely high cost of living, it is easy to see why people are proud to call Sydney home.

Not good for us on this visit was that Holland America's Amsterdam and Cunard's Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria, all on grand world voyages, also were docking in Sydney for one or both days that our ship was there. Those three ships had priority docking in the Overseas Passenger Terminal, where we were last year in the middle of all the action, while the Pacific Princess was relegated to Darling Harbour because our ship could sail under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was like being in a distant suburb. So after our little band of merry travelers (Ginger, Joe, Sara and Ken) finally found our way to Circular Quay, our goal was to buy tickets for the opera at the Sydney Opera House. Ginger thought we could get a better deal at the facility than online. Ken declined our invitation to join us at the opera.

While waiting in line at the Sydney Opera House, we talked to Sylvia, the computer-at-seas instructor on the ship, who had just purchased a ticket there because she was tired of waiting to access the Internet on her computer. So all our complaints about how slow and sporadic Internet access on the ship is have been justified by the ship's expert! However, the Internet access is the only thing on this trip that is worse than last year. We think that the food and entertainment ranks above the extremely high ratings we gave the 2010 World Cruise. Even the comedic magician was good!

While Joe and Ken drank Lowenbrau beers for $11.50 (how do people afford to live here?), Ginger introduced Sara to the art work of Ken Done and a museum selling Aboriginal originals. When we were eating lunch at an outdoor cafe, we noticed an advertisement for The Rocks Walking Tour, which was billed as "...the best, most entertaining and informative way to get to know the area..." that was the first settlement in Sydney. When we were in Auckland, our guide told us that the difference between New Zealand and Australia is that the former was settled by people who came because they wanted to live there while the later was settled by prisoners that the government had sentenced to live there. Our destination lecturer Richard had told us the when he was applying for his Australian Visa, the woman asked him, "Do you have a criminal record?" He answered, "No, do you still need one?" She did not think his response was funny.

The walking tour was one of the highlights of the day. The late 1700s was a time of poverty in Great Britain, and the jails were overcrowded because many of the poor people started stealing small items to keep alive. The government rounded up the offenders and dumped them in jails, the most famous being Newgate Prison. England has started a program known as transportation of prisoners in which they put them on ships and sent them to colonize other areas of the British Empire. Convicts were sentenced to seven or 14 years but once they had completed their sentence, it was a capital offense to return to England, so basically it was a life sentence. Unfortunately for the empire, Great Britain had lost its colonies in North America during the Revolutionary War (not a good time for the Mother Country). The officials remembered Bounty Bay in New South Wales and decided to send the First Fleet of 11 small ships, under the command of Captain Arthur Philip, to Bounty Bay in New South Wales on the east coast of Australia. After eight and one-half months, the ships, which carried 750 convicts and 550 marines and family members, arrived on January 26, 1789, which is now celebrated as Australian Day.

Many passengers had died in route and Bounty Bay turned out to be hell on earth. Phillip set out in a smaller boat and discovered the beautiful bay of Sydney Cove so the Rocks became the first settlement in Sydney. The convicts who were very ill prepared to colonize the territory, suffered very dismal beginnings. They had no building or farming skills, and the crops that they attempted to grow were unsuitable for the soil. But they carried on making for an incredible story. In all, more than 160,000 convicts were transported to New South Wales between 1788 and 1840 to colonize the continent. While it was not always looked on favorably, now having the "convict stain" in a person's heritage is a badge of honor.

The second highlight of the day was attending The Barber of Seville at the Sydney Opera House. The government had sponsored a contest in 1959 that resulted in 233 entries for the design of the opera house. The original estimate for the winning entry was $7 million. After the cost of construction had exceeded the budget many times over, the government decided that they could not complete the project. But the ingenuity that always has been a trademark of Australians resulted in the development of a lottery. Within 18 months, the government had raised enough money to finish the opera house, which was opened in 1973 at a final cost of $102 million. But what price could be put upon a masterpiece of human creative genius that has become a global icon, which is unparalleled as one of the great buildings in the 20th century? (Give credit to the advertising geniuses for this description.)

The performance of The Barber of Seville was everything that could be expected in the most famous opera house in the world--the orchestra was incredible, the choir was fantastic, the leads were outstanding in both their verbal and nonverbal offerings, the setting were beautiful and Figaro, the barber, received a well deserved standing ovation. It was a perfect ending to a delightful day in spectacular Sydney.