When we planned this trip a year ago, we decided to fly out of Vancouver BC to avoid a connection in San Francisco or Los Angeles. Sounded pretty good a year ago, but as we made plans to drive and park at the airport, the reality hit home. The flight was 11:45 PM (note PM) which means we left Mukilteo at about 6 PM and then would have a 15 1/2 hour non stop flight to Sydney.
Let's add that up - Up at 7 AM and then get in the car at 6 PM (that's 11 hours) Drive and sit in Vancouver airport (that's another 6 hours). Then the 15 1/2 hours on the plane. And finally a couple hours to get into Sydney and to our Hotel. 11 + 6 + 15 1/2 + 2 = 34 1/2 hours. We arrived about noon in Sydney. It is a long way to Australia.
The drive was uneventful. Then the first surprise. We checked the departure board and saw there was a 1 1/2 hour delay. Oh well, at least we had a couple books. But then the big surprise. We headed to checkin to get rid of our baggage, easy enough, but then they asked for our visa number for our Australian visa? This was not India or Uganda. It was a civilized western country. No where, in any guidebook, on any website, or even when we booked our tickets did anyone mention a visa. For a moment I had a mental picture of another 24 hours in the airport while we got that piece of paperwork. But the gods were with us and found we could get online and a half hour later we were checked in and ready to have a beer while we waited.
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The flight was smooth, the food reasonable, and Kathy had convinced me an upgrade to Premium economy was a great way to start the trip so the seats had plenty of leg room. Aside form an elderly fellow across the aisle who probably had a small stroke on the flight (lost some use of his left side) and the wait while the medics came on board, assessed and helped him off, the transition to Australia was easy. We even successfully negotiated the use of the light rail to town instead of an Uber.
It was midday, so we decided to get in a walk. I'll just give you a few highlights.
Walked onto the bridge over the harbor and saw the opera house.
Walked up to Observatory Hill where they used the stars to set the chronometers in the sea faring days.
Walked by the oldest pub in Sydney - we will have a beer there tomorrow.
And finished the day with dinner at an Indian restaurant near the hotel. It looks like we will be able to get great asian food while we are here.
And best of all we were able to stay awake until 8 PM so avoided the 2 AM "I'm awake and ready to go" downside of jet lag. Fortunately we are only 5 hours off Seattle time. So when it is 6 PM in Sydney it is 11 PM in Seattle (and 2 AM in Boston).
