Sydney

1:00 p. m. 

Hi everyone ,

Well, I told you at the outset of this blog experience that this wasn't going to be quite as exciting as our Italy trip. Today is a good example of that.  We landed in Sydney at about 9:00 a.m. It's a pretty small town that used to have a steel mill and coal mines to provide fuel for the steel mills. Due to a very tough market for steel, the mills closed in the early 2000s and there's never been a good replacement to fuel the local economy. So the downtown shows its age a bit, and there isn't a great deal to do here for those arriving by ship.  We did meet some very friendly and helpful local people, which was fun. Here are a few photos:

St. George Anglican Church (1791).

Former Bank of Montreal branch, now a museum.

Giant mural of a hockey player.

Big Fiddle, said to be the largest in the world.

Whale mural.

Last night's dinner was the Orange Night, where everyone is asked to wear something orange to dinner. Holland America cruise line being a Dutch company and orange being the national color of Holland.  We were up to the challenge as you can see:
Today is my sister Sheila's birthday so we decorated her door:

Here's a nice photo caught by Cath yesterday. This is siblings Don and Sheila on their respective lanais (our staterooms are pretty close together):
We sail at 4pm today, heading for Halifax, which we understand is a bit more exciting than Sydney.  I will report back tomorrow!

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