At Sea, At Last - Sydney

Today is Thursday and we are enjoying our first of a total of four days at sea. It is a nice itinerary that mixes port days with sea days so that it's not a frantic go go go for days on end.

But first, rewind to yesterday. Embarkation was a breeze, although different than most in that Serenity was at anchor in Sydney Harbour and rather than using Crystal's tenders, local ferries were used to transport us on a 20 minute scenic ride from the White Bay terminal, under the Harbour Bridge, past the famed Sydney Opera House. Ant it truly is a beautiful harbour. The weather was perfect, the landscape is lush and vivid and the myriad of vessels of all kinds, shapes and sizes make this a very dynamic waterway.

 

We got on board and immediately fell in love with Crystal all over again. No sooner had we stepped on board that we had flutes of Jacquard handed to us. We chose to have lunch in the dining room -this has become a bit of a tradition for us on embarkation day- the food (I always pick the salmon with risotto, Blake always the burger) was outstanding, including a pureed vegetable soup Blake had and immediately proclaimed to be possibly the best soup he'd ever had. We were seated by the window, a view of the Harbour made it a perfect meal.

 

 

 

After lunch we went ashore and spent the rest of the day walking around town; it is a charming city, it has loads of character and a good vibe. The old and the new blend well, it is super clean and we saw many more people enjoying a cold brew in outdoor patios than sipping lattes as we see in Vancouver. We regret not having planned a longer visit to Sydney but look forward to coming back one day soon.

  Back on board we readied ourselves for dinner but jet-lag was really catching up with us. We opted for Tastes, the tapas style restaurant, where we were warmly received and had the most amazing meal. We started out with Gambas a la Plancha, followed by Street Tacos, Curried Singapore Noodles and Chimichurri Steak. Each delicious, the setting quite magical.

We ended up striking a conversation with a couple seated a few tables away -I heard them speaking Spanish with the maitre'd and had to ask where they were from. It ended up that one of them is Australian and is a musician doing a couple of shows in the next few days. His partner was born in Costa Rica, hence the Spanish speaking. Chatted for a good long time and then we were done, so done. Called it a night.

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