BNE - SYD and the 2000 Sydney Olympics

July 25, 2012

SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA -- It is SO NICE to be back in Sydney! Unfortunately I was not actively blogging at the time, but I had a fabulous trip to my then-sixth continent, spending nearly a week in Sydney in August 2011. As such, it is great to be back. That said, we should start at the beginning of the day...

We had a reasonably late wake-up of 630am today, checked out of our rooms, had some breakfast, and set off for BNE. When we arrived, we said goodbye to Rob, who was with absolute certainty the best bus driver I have ever encountered in all of my years of these trips. He was first and foremost a really good driver, but beyond that a nice, friendly, and informative gentleman who greatly contributed to our entire experience up in Queensland.

After our goodbyes, we got into the airport and saw the bad news that our flight was cancelled. A few minutes later we were re-booked together onto a flight two hours later - all told, not too terrible. We checked in, went through security, and got to our gate. Unfortunately by this time our flight was delayed another two hours, meaning a four hour delay for us, which was going to actually impact our planned itinerary on arrival into SYD. Qantas was kind enough to give us lunch vouchers, so we ate at BNE and cancelled our planned lunch in Sydney, making up most of the time we lost. After lunch, we finally boarded our short one hour flight down to the Australian continent's largest city.

July 25, 2012 - Finally ready to board our plane from BNE-SYD!

An hour and a half later, we were on the coach in Sydney!

Once we got to Sydney we immediately set off for the 2000 Olympic Park. Unfortunately, it was peak traffic, and as such it took us a whopping two hours to cross the city and get over there. By the time we arrived it was nightfall, and while we luckily were still able to get a tour at the Aquatic Centre, there was simply no time to get to swim, as originally planned. Alas, that's how travel goes sometimes, and we have been very lucky to this point to have not missed anything so far!

That being said, the Olympic Park was awesome! When I was in Sydney last year, this was one of the few major tourist sights I did not get to visit, so it was all new for me. We started at the Olympic Stadium, visited the memorial to the 47,000 volunteers who staged the games, and then got into the Aquatic Centre for our tour.

Olympic Stadium from afar.

Almost there!

At the Sydney Olympic Stadium (now obviously ANZ Stadium)

Our DM's name on the volunteer memorial, Anthony Marcon.

The 2000 Sydney Olympic torch!

Inside the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre, on the diving side.

After our visit was over we headed to our hotel, had some dinner, and FINALLY enjoyed some free wifi before getting to sleep.