Sydney Day 1

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The overnight flight was OK and l survived Nancy’s wrath at another long 8 hour flight. We did not sleep very well but for no particular reason.

On arrival at Sydney airport we met up the staff of the most badly organised airport we have ever met. Immigration was fine until we met up with the food police. Australia is apparently paranoid about importing disease. You are not allowed to bring in any food, animal or plant materials, and the Immigration people are very willing to impose heavy fines for those that break the rules. The checks created absolute chaos with no organisation to get through customs. It was every tourist for themselves, no lines or channels to go through. Every suitcase was checked and people were getting very angry.

Anyway we managed eventually get into the country and decided to take a taxi instead of the planned train shuttle. By this point we were both really tired and wanted to get to the hotel as quickly as possible. The taxi driver was a Burnmese and we had a really good conversation with him about conditions in his home country.

Can we say at this point that our initial impression of Australia is one of a truly cosmopolitan country with many people from the Asian countries, of Japan Korea and India. Maybe it is because all the Australians are in London’s Kings Cross.

The Crowne Plaza Darling Harbour is very conventiently sited for all the local attractions and after an hours wait for our room appeared to be of a high standard. Nancy was pleased with it anyway so that was OK. We managed to grab a couple of hours of sleep because we hit the city.

More of that in the next blog.

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