SYDNEY, February 13th

We docked early in the morning and had to go through an immigration inspection before leaving the ship. Sydney is the capital of the state of New South Wales and is Australia's commercial and media capital. It is truly one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It's a young city and very cosmopolitan... also very expensive. Our friends met us at the ship at 9:30. We had coffee in a nearby cafe at the rocks, which is the old section of Sydney. Next door was the restaurant where Gary and I ate dinner the last 2 times we were here. Interesting restaurant, you walk through a bar into a courtyard with umbrella tables at various levels. At the top sits a small house. As you enter it on the right is a refrigerated case filled with raw chicken, pork and beef. Another case in front has french fries and baked potatoes. In the center of the room is a salad bar. First you choose your entree (the chicken, beef or pork). The fellow puts it on your plate and directs you to a large outdoor grill where you cook your own food. After it's cooked, you go back and select the potato and take salad. We loved it! The name is "Phillip's Foote."

Anyway, after coffee we walked and walked and walked. Our ship docked directly across from the opera house. Not only was the view spectacular but the location was the best. We went to the opera house and to the Sydney Museum. They had made a reservation for lunch at Cafe Sydney about 6 weeks ago and we went there around 1:30. The restaurant was on the top floor of the old Customs building. It was very contemporary and just beautiful. We ate on the terrace overlooking the harbour. Afterwards we walked some more and then on to their hotel. We said our good-byes around 6:00 as they had tickets to see Carmen at the opera house at 7:30. To bad we couldn't join them but we had to be back on board by 9:30.

We ran into a group of bikers (Harley Davidson) from the U.S. as we passed a cafe near the boat. They rode 3,000 miles across Australia. One on the fellows was a designer for Harley and actually designed Gary's bike. We had a great day...it was wonderful seeing our friends and lovely of them to fly in to see us.