Arriving in Sydney

After a couple of busy days in Cairns, it was time to fly to Sydney. We could sleep in, eat breakfast and pack our bags without rush. The transfer to Cairns Airport departed at 9.30 am from the hotel. We were at the airport well in time before departure at 11.30 am.

The airline flying us from Cairns to Sydney was Virgin Australia, which took about 3 hours. The aircraft, a Boeing 737, has up to 2018 been produced and delivered in over 4800 examples and is one of the most common aircraft models in the world. Of course, I had chosen a window seat and the weather was fantastic. After take-off we flew out over the ocean and the Great Barrier Reef. The blue and turquoise colors were amazing to see from above. Believe it or not, but Great Barrier Reef can be seen from space. Now, we left the tropical northern Queensland and flew south to Sydney in New South Wales, with weather close to Swedish summer. And even though we flew pretty much straight south, we changed time zone and had to set the clock one hour forward.

We landed at 4.30 pm at Kingsford Smith International Airport which I Sydney’s largest airport and is the world’s oldest airport still being used for commercial air traffic. Sydney is the oldest and largest city in Australia with more than 4 million residents but is despite that not the capital, as many might believe. Sydney’s perfect location, between the natural harbor “Sydney Harbor” in the east and Blue Mountains in the west, contributes to a comfortable subtropical climate all year around. The city offers a wide range of sport and culture and one of Sydney’s most known and photographed landmarks is the opera house. As a harbor city with a coastline of 90 kilometers, Sydney has many inviting beaches like Bondi Beach and Manly Beach which boosts the city’s flourishing tourism.

Once we all had collected our bags, we walked to our transfer to get to the hotel. Close to Oxford Street and Hyde Park, we found our last hotel during this trip, Travelodge Hotel Sydney. With large spacious modern styled rooms, it felt like a perfect ending of a long journey. From being 18 people, the group would now become about 30 people. The new ones were on their way to Sydney, from Sweden, and Michael from the travel agency was meeting up with them on the airport. Some of us, which now had been traveling for a while, gathered in the hotel lobby and went for dinner together in Darling Harbour.

Darling Harbour is an area at the harbor in Sydney and was named after lieutenant general Ralph Darling that was governor in New South Wales between 1825 and 1830. Darling Harbour is a recreation and pedestrian district in western part of downtown Sydney. We found a nice Italian restaurant and chose to be seated inside. We felt that, even though it was only 6.30 pm, it was already getting chilly and after just having been in warm Alice Springs and Cairns, it felt incredibly cold.