This magnificent building is so exciting to see, from any angle, any time of day. It is positively uplifting. We saw the Australian Ballet perform Madame Butterfly on April 20, and this performance was one of the highlights (perhaps THE highlight) of our second visit to Sydney. Only difficulty was staying awake in the darkened theatre, as we were still fighting 14-hour time zone adjustment. The whole experience of getting to and from the theatre was so easy and stress free. It was a five-minute walk with one traffic light and no crowds or waiting from our hotel to the venue. Our tickets were waiting for us at will call; everything fell into place so amazingly well.
Dining in Sydney
On our 31st wedding anniversary, we took Erin to a gourmet meal at the Café Sydney, on roof terrace of the Custom House in Circular Quay. Fantastic view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in night-time lights. Delicious meal, Veuve Clicquot. One of our most enjoyable meals, anywhere in the world, ever.
Our other favorite spot, recommended by Courtney Kelly, our other family Sydney expert, is the Australian Hotel in the Rocks, where we had a delicious kangaroo pizza for lunch, and a delicious kangaroo pizza and a duck pizza for dinner. Relaxed atmosphere, table on the sidewalk, Aussie beer, quiet neighborhood and easy walk from our Intercontinental Hotel.
Royal Botanical Garden, Sydney
Walk through lush, green and diverse gardens between our Intercontinental Hotel and the Gallery of New South Wales was full of interest and surprises. Most amazing were the flying foxes, giant bats, nesting in many trees and sadly de-foliating and killing them. Saw many palms, eucalyptus, native shrubs, cacti. Just before sunset we walked along the Wooloomoolu Harbor to the point, called Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair, for the governors wife who loved to sit at the point and take in the view. Brilliant blue skies, blue harbour and sun setting just behind the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. Cockateels in trees, shrieking at us.
Photography in Sydney Museums
As fate would have it, the Gallery of Modern Art, right on Circular Quay, was running a portrait photography exhibit of American Annie Liebovitz. She had some fascinating portraits of famous Americans including George W. Bush and 4 top aides, Colin Powell, Hiliary Clinton, Leonardo diCaprio with a swan wrapped around his neck, Cindy Crawford nude with a snake around her neck, Julianne Moore (We know her, small world), Brad Pitt. These large prints were intermingled with many family shots including her three daughters, close friend Susan Sontag, her parents. Many times the setting (Ocean City, MD and Silver Spring, MD) reminded us of how small the world is!
Later that day (April 20) we wandered through the main art museum, the Gallery of New South Wales and through an exhibit of Australian landscape photographers. These two exhibits were made to order for my photography interests! Many of the works portray a sense of vast emptiness of the central Australian arid landscape. I found it interesting but not my taste. Afterwards, I said to Charlie, “Are you feeling better about my work?” I prefer my own style to what I was seeing here.
Enchanting San Francisco
“It’s the first day of our vacation. Let’s forget about the problems with the airlines, and enjoy our day,” Charlie suggested, setting the tone for our day. We hired a taxi to deliver us to the gates of Chinatown, where we began our window shopping and a little bit of real shopping – looking at jade and silk and chatting with friendly shopkeepers from China and Vietnam. I pointed out the memorable coffee shop where Courtney and I had breakfast about 6 years ago (on a visit to University of San Francisco). We saw the famous Ten Ren tea shop, and had lunch in the same place where we took Courtney and Erin in July 2004. We walked up this little side street and picked a place on the right, attracted by the Peking ducks in the window. Once we were sitting down, we looked around and realized it had to be the same place. We can remember it because we took a bunch of photos there in 2004. Of course, we had some Peking duck and were surrounded by Chinese families enjoying their Sunday meal. “Need a fork?” the waitress asked me. “Oh no, of course not,” I replied, proud of my experience in China. Caitlin, Dad ordered a Tsingdao beer, and we thought of your stories in Tsingdao.
We continued our walking tour to Union Square, where SF’ers were enjoying their green space just like the Parisians enjoy Les Jardins de Luxembourg on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Then, we walked downhill on Market Street to the Ferry Building. No Farmers’ Market on Sunday, but the specialty shops inside were a feast for the eye (and nose) – selling bread in one shop, cheese in the next, wine, chocolate… Across the bay we could see Cal Berkeley and lots of sailboats and tourist boats in the bay. We picked our spot for 3 pm champagne at Pier 15 – J Cuvee from Sonoma. We walked past the cruise ship terminal and recalled the excitement of boarding the Silversea for Alaska there in 2004.
Palm Sunday Mass
Charlie has a way of insisting that we go to Mass when we travel, wherever we are and regardless of the busy schedule, so Sunday morning in San Francisco after six hours of sleep was no different. One year we enjoyed the Cathedral in Strasbourg France for Palm Sunday followed by Easter Sunday Mass at Notre Dame in Paris, and in 2009 we enjoyed Palm Sunday in St. Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney.
In Burlingame, a pretty residential suburb of San Francisco, the highlight was processing down the street with parishioners, the priest and a real donkey. The priest had his left hand wrapped around a short lead, and his right arm in a headlock around the donkey’s neck. The donkey did a perfect job, with no objections to the trumpets that blared a refrain and a church full of people. He even marched down the center aisle of the church! It reminded me of the time when Erin and I attended Easter Sunday Mass in La Quercia, a little country town north of Rome, and a bleating lamb was less sure of its role as it was brought to the altar in a basket at the beginning of Mass.
Reminded why I love Aussies
I called the Sydney Intercontinental to tell them we would be 24 hours late, and our reservation would not be cancelled. The lady convinced me not to cancel our first night (at approx $400) so we could have our room immediately upon arrival at 7:30 am Tuesday. She ended the conversation with a lilting, “Have a lovely afternoon.” It was 5am EDT, and I felt miserable, but I smiled and thanked God for her graciousness.
Take Delta next time
OK. On advice from my friend Bill, the pilot, I apologize for criticizing the USAirways pilot for his decision not to fly the aircraft with dents in it (most likely from hail) but I will clarify that my vow never to fly that airline again holds, due to the surly flight attendant and gate agent. I’ll be quick not to dwell on the negative… passengers were stressed after a completely unexpected three-hour delay and poor communication. We were told to exit the aircraft and wait for an announcement on a new gate. The first announcement was, “Stop blocking the airport.” Then, we got a new gate and were told just as soon as the plane was cleaned and serviced with food, we would reboard. Well, a few hours later they announced that the cleaning crew had JUST arrived! There were three young men with Apple laptops sitting in a row, and you should have seen all three faces make, “Oh my God” expressions. Next we are boarding, and for some reason we are in zone 5, but they announced if you have a Silver Preferred USAirways Visa Card, you can board with zone 2. So we did, until the gate agent snagged me like a red handed criminal and verballed threw me against the wall. I have a USAirways Visa Card, I begged, as Charlie sneaked off down the jetway. But it isn’t printed on your boarding pass, so get over there, she replied nastily. Lucky that I bolted for the line when they announced zone 5, because shortly after I had been cleared to board, the nasty agent made the remaining passengers check all carry on bags. A few minutes later, some of these unhappy passengers remarked at the open space in the overhead bins when they were making their way to their seats. They expressed their consternation to the flight attendant standing near us. “Do you WANT to be on this airplane?!” she shouted at them angrily. (As Charlie whispered to me, we did three hours ago…) All of us in earshot were speechless with what looked like an imminent fist fight and passenger ejection until another passenger defused the tension with the comment, “Come on! This delay has been long enough!” Animosity lingered in the air. This was 9 pm. We landed in SFO at 3 am (EDT) and finally fell into bed at the Hyatt at 5 am. I reflected that it was a good thing my parents were not making this trip at their age.
Stuck in San Francisco
Yesterday was the first time I missed an international flight, and it will be the last time I will fly with USAirways. Crazy thing happened: we were all in our seats in CLT, ready to push back at 6 pm, and the pilot says he noticed some dents in the tail section of the plane, about the size of golf balls, and they needed to investigate it. next they decide we need to investigate, and that will take time, so we need to get another aircraft. Well, that took three hours, although they never apologized or told us how long it would be. So, we missed the only daily flight to SYD from SFO. Got on the phone and were relieved to get seats on the next day’s flight. here we are about to board, so I have to close very soon. we got to our hotel at 5am our time. very tired and bummed out. However, Charlie and I had an excellent day walking all over sunny San Francisco today. Will blog about that next time. Question for our favorite former pilot Bill: what do you think about the golf ball sized dents in the plane, and do you think it was right not to fly that plane??
Can’t wait to return to Sydney!
Blog: Cathy Kelly Photography 