Day 1 and 2 travel to Australia

---

Anthony's Limo is picking us up at home and will drop us off at DIA. The ride to the airport, check in, passport scan with Australia Visa verification, TSA bag check and train to concourse B all total took only 1 hour. We had plenty of time so we stopped at Elway‘s to share a burger with green Chile and a John’s salad. While we were enjoying the delicious burger, we received a very disturbing text from our friends and fellow travelers, Bill and Jane Loetell. Jane said that they were not allowed to check in for their flights Tampa to Houston to Sydney because there was a problem with their electronic Visa to Australia. We were startled and decided we must go to the United Customer service counter to check on our Visa. We were told we received boarding passes through to Sydney because our Visas were in order. I’m not sure what happened with our friends visa but felt relief that we were good to go. After several texts back and forth, we determined that our friends were heading home and had decided that they would not be joining us on the adventure we had been planning for 18 months. We are VERY sad and will miss sharing this with them.



Our flight to LAX was slightly delayed as the airline had a plane change at the last minute. Finally, boarding started and since we were group 1, we were quick to get on board and seated in row 3 A and B. They served a snack during the uneventful flight, cheese, crackers and fruit OR chicken salad with quinoa. We both wanted the 1st choice but they said there was only one left so I took the chicken salad .... Bland bland bland so I made Jim share his very nice cheese plate with me!! Our flight landed at LAX and we cruised by the historic LA parabolic arches on our way to the gate in concourse 7. We had 5 long hours to wait for our very late departing flight to Sydney so we went to the United Club and found comfortable seats, charging our devices and getting some free food and beverages. We waited, walked around the club many times,snacked and passed the time best we could. Finally the time came to head to the gate to board the long 15 hour flight to Sydney. Although we departed 10:45pm PT that would be 5:45pm in Sydney, they served dinner at about midnight. We enjoyed a nice California red blend and dinner with an ice cream sundae with all the fixings, chocolate, carmel,nuts and whipped cream. Tons of sugar... just what one needs when heading into a long sleep on an airplane. But we couldn’t resist. As we got ready for a long restless night rest, we realized that Jim’s seat was broken and the leg portion that allows the seat to recline flat not working. Darn. The cabin attendant got some box that they placed so the leg rest would stay flat for Jim... whew, crisis averted! We took our sleeper helper and we each fell sound asleep, Jim in reclining position and my sitting up with leg Stretched. When we awoke, we each watched a movie, ate breakfast of an omelette, sausage links, croissant, vanilla yoghurt and fruit. For airplane food it was actually really good. The head attendant came and offered Jim a $300 a United voucher for his seat issue. Chaching ...we took it!!



We landed safely in Sydney on January 11th (we lost a day since we crossed the international date line) we went through immigration where they have this facial recognition machine to match you with your passport photo, then baggage claim and lastly customs. Sadly they do not stamp passports anymore. We found the Viking representative and waited for a while as several other flights with couples taking the cruise heading to the Sydney Marriott Circle Quay hotel. We arrived at the hotel and another Viking rep provided us with details on our 2 day stay. Jim and I went for a walk to the harbor and were tired so we headed back to the hotel. We talked to the concierge and decided to book a 2 hour harbor tour 2-4pm which was a really great way to spend the afternoon. Our room was ready when we returned and our luggage had been delivered to our room. We were really tired by now but realized that our electricity converter was not capable of charging our multiple devices so we went across the street and bought an Australia 220 -2USB charger we can use here and on the ship too. Dinner was fish and chips at Rocks Cafe then back to the hotel for a shower and ready for a good nights sleep ... after I write this blog!

---