Just for a shot of the life-styles of the rich and famous, the following six pictures are from the Presidential suite. The first is the office, then the living room with a grand piano, one of the three bedrooms and a dining room complete with its own china. This is what most of the suites in the 5star hotels are like. No wonder our CEO always feels lost in his room!
After breakfast, we headed to the harbor to go sailing. Usually on an incentive type trip sailing consists of sitting on the boat sipping as many drinks as you would like while the crew of the boat does all the work. We soon found out that wasn't the plan for this trip. We were the crew! How scary is that?! We boarded the ship, got our safety briefing and headed out to sea - with only one of our group having any sailing experience at all.
She (above) looks confused, doesn't she? And she's the one that has been sailing before! The first position filled was the helmsman. I quickly refused the position because I knew I would have us sailing in circles all day, and since we were going to be having a race with the other two boats in our group as soon as we learned what we were doing, I figured I wasn't the best choice. Cynthia accepted the job, and we were soon doing maneuvers such as jigging and other nautical sounding terms. I learned how to work a winch very well, and can winch in line and let out line very well now. 
I had absolutely no idea Paulette was joining us on this trip! LOL This woman looked so much like Paulette it was eerie. The only difference was she spoke with an Australian accent. The winch right by her head with all the red rope around it is the one that my partner and I used to hoist the main sail.
When we left the marina there was blue sky, by the time we had figured out our positions and jobs we were in high wind and rain, and we soon looked like drowned rats. (Oh, notice the pair of Maui Jims I'm wearing. I got another pair on this trip! The sales rep said that with 5 pairs I ought to just become a rep myself.)
When we left the marina there was blue sky, by the time we had figured out our positions and jobs we were in high wind and rain, and we soon looked like drowned rats. (Oh, notice the pair of Maui Jims I'm wearing. I got another pair on this trip! The sales rep said that with 5 pairs I ought to just become a rep myself.)
We made our way to the starting line and when the whistle blew, we were in perfect position to start. We took the lead immediately and headed for the first marker we were supposed to sail to. Half way there, we looked back and the boat at the rear had lowered its sails and was motoring off in another direction. By the time we reached the marker - well in the lead I might add - the second boat had lowered its sails and was motoring off. As we sailed around the marker we discovered why. All the wind that had been blowing the rain into our faces had died. There was no wind at all, and nothing to sail with. So, we declared ourselves the winners because we were the last to lower our sails, and we headed off to explore the many little bays within the harbor. There are some magnificent homes along the shores.
This one with the green dome used to be the US consulate, but they have moved it because the security on the shore is not that great.
We ran into one of the other boats on our way back to the marina. They were all sipping champagne - and some had had a few too many. LOL
After sailing we had a couple of hours to explore Sydney on our own before dinner. A couple of the girls and I went to Paddington Market - an open air market held on Saturdays - to do a little shopping. It was great. There were a ton of independent jewelry designers that sold their stuff for not a whole lot. I picked up some very unusual pieces and had a ball.
You can check the whole thing out at http://www.bridgeclimb.com/. We did the discovery tour which begins with a safety briefing inside the headquarters. We then went through an hour long process of getting suited up in a jumpsuit and a bunch of equipment. They do not allow any personal items, including jewelry, and everything must be securely buckled to the jumpsuit so that if it is dropped it won't fall to the road deck below and shatter the windows of a car driving by. We were even given our own utility belt (by the time we were outfitted I felt a little like Batman) that carried our radio and life line. The radios were very cool. They were developed by the US Marines and consisted of two oval disks that are worn touching the skin on the temple bones, not in the ears. The sound is carried as vibration through the skull, and the brain processes it as sound. There was nothing in our ears, but we could hear our guide's voice as if he were speaking through earphones in our ears. The set-up left our ears uncovered so we could hear what was going on around us. Very high tech and very cool.
here you have emu:
and the last one is crocodile. They were all really good, with my favorite being the crocodile just because it was a Mediterranean style pizza without the heavy sauce and with lime juice instead. We actually ate quite a bit of kangaroo, emu and crocodile on the trip. Emu is my favorite of the three, and even though it comes from a bird it is a red meat. Very tasty.
These are some of the original terrace houses. All of the property in the Rocks is owned by the government in an attempt to keep the historic buildings standing, so all of the housing in the area is public housing. Its kind of odd that this ocean front property isn't lived in by the rich - most of them are retired pensioners.
This pub claims to be the oldest pub in Australia, but so do 95% of the rest of them. Dan Quayle visited this establishment several years ago, and they now have an ale named after him - the Quayle Bush.
Behind us you can see the actual casks where the beer is brewed.
And I had to take a picture of this Dodge Dart that was a celebrated race car in Australia during its time - I drove one in high school, and another my first couple years of college.
The tour went into a fair amount of history of the area and the convicts that settled it. Below is a park called Foundation Park. It is what is left of a row of terrace houses that was torn down in the early 1900's when there was a scare of bubonic plague. There would be 6-8 people living in each room, and an entire swarm of rats living under the floor boards. There really wasn't a plague, the government just used it as a scare tactic and took the opportunity to destroy a large number of homes in the area hoping to turn the Rocks into an area for the wealthy to build their homes. There were a total of 3 people who died from the plague.
When the convicts put in the time that they were required to work for the government, they were required to cut a certain number of sandstone blocks a day. Being creative, some of the convicts would steal blocks from the other convict's piles and claim them as their own. This led to each convict marking their stones with a "signature" of tool marks. When you look at any of the walls or stairs in the Rocks, you will see that all of the blocks are marked with different markings. Its quite facinating to think how many different hands went into building the structures.
This one with the green dome used to be the US consulate, but they have moved it because the security on the shore is not that great.
We ran into one of the other boats on our way back to the marina. They were all sipping champagne - and some had had a few too many. LOL
After sailing we had a couple of hours to explore Sydney on our own before dinner. A couple of the girls and I went to Paddington Market - an open air market held on Saturdays - to do a little shopping. It was great. There were a ton of independent jewelry designers that sold their stuff for not a whole lot. I picked up some very unusual pieces and had a ball. Viewing the World from 100 yards up and Pub Crawling
Sunday morning we did the bridge climb on the Harbor Bridge. They didn't let us take our cameras with us, so I didn't get any personal pictures. Skye, our group leader, purchased a DVD of all of the pictures that our guide took, and as soon as I get that I will post some of the pictures. It was an incredible experience.
You can check the whole thing out at http://www.bridgeclimb.com/. We did the discovery tour which begins with a safety briefing inside the headquarters. We then went through an hour long process of getting suited up in a jumpsuit and a bunch of equipment. They do not allow any personal items, including jewelry, and everything must be securely buckled to the jumpsuit so that if it is dropped it won't fall to the road deck below and shatter the windows of a car driving by. We were even given our own utility belt (by the time we were outfitted I felt a little like Batman) that carried our radio and life line. The radios were very cool. They were developed by the US Marines and consisted of two oval disks that are worn touching the skin on the temple bones, not in the ears. The sound is carried as vibration through the skull, and the brain processes it as sound. There was nothing in our ears, but we could hear our guide's voice as if he were speaking through earphones in our ears. The set-up left our ears uncovered so we could hear what was going on around us. Very high tech and very cool.
After suiting up, we walked down the street to the bridge where we climbed up onto the catwalks that run underneath the bridge. Our tour took us under the bridge, in-between the travel lanes, up into the actual arches and finally out on the very top of the bridge. Along the way our guide told us stories about the history of the bridge. It was built during the 1930's during the depression and workers from all over the world came to work on it. There are 6 million rivets in the bridge, none of which have ever had to be replaced. The rivets were heated up with little stoves that were sitting on the framework of the bridge, then one of the workers would toss them one at a time across to another worker. In the process, some of the rivets were dropped, and it is estimated that there are an additional 100,000 rivets in the harbor. There were thousands of workers that worked on the bridge every year without any safety equipment, but there were only six killed - and only one by falling. At the top of the bridge we were 130 meters above the water, which is around 100 yards. That's a football field above the water. It was an amazing trip. We had six of us that went and a father and son from Sydney in our climbing group. It was the kid's 15th birthday, and I don't think he will every forget it!
After the bridge climb we headed into the Rocks for a bar tour. The Rocks is the land area right under the harbor bridge where the first convicts were settled. They were required to work for so many hours a day for the government, and then after 3:00 in the afternoon they could pursue their chosen profession. The buildings are very old and cool, and there is a lot of history. There are a ton of old pubs and former hotels in the area. We had lunch at the Australian Hotel, one of the many who claim to be the first hotel in Australia. We ordered Auzie pizzas for lunch.
This one is kangaroo:
here you have emu:
and the last one is crocodile. They were all really good, with my favorite being the crocodile just because it was a Mediterranean style pizza without the heavy sauce and with lime juice instead. We actually ate quite a bit of kangaroo, emu and crocodile on the trip. Emu is my favorite of the three, and even though it comes from a bird it is a red meat. Very tasty.
These are some of the original terrace houses. All of the property in the Rocks is owned by the government in an attempt to keep the historic buildings standing, so all of the housing in the area is public housing. Its kind of odd that this ocean front property isn't lived in by the rich - most of them are retired pensioners.
This pub claims to be the oldest pub in Australia, but so do 95% of the rest of them. Dan Quayle visited this establishment several years ago, and they now have an ale named after him - the Quayle Bush.
Behind us you can see the actual casks where the beer is brewed.
And I had to take a picture of this Dodge Dart that was a celebrated race car in Australia during its time - I drove one in high school, and another my first couple years of college.
The tour went into a fair amount of history of the area and the convicts that settled it. Below is a park called Foundation Park. It is what is left of a row of terrace houses that was torn down in the early 1900's when there was a scare of bubonic plague. There would be 6-8 people living in each room, and an entire swarm of rats living under the floor boards. There really wasn't a plague, the government just used it as a scare tactic and took the opportunity to destroy a large number of homes in the area hoping to turn the Rocks into an area for the wealthy to build their homes. There were a total of 3 people who died from the plague.
When the convicts put in the time that they were required to work for the government, they were required to cut a certain number of sandstone blocks a day. Being creative, some of the convicts would steal blocks from the other convict's piles and claim them as their own. This led to each convict marking their stones with a "signature" of tool marks. When you look at any of the walls or stairs in the Rocks, you will see that all of the blocks are marked with different markings. Its quite facinating to think how many different hands went into building the structures.
1 comment:
I think you did your meter/yard conversion the wrong way. 130 meters is actually 142 yards, so you were higher than you thought you were...
With all this talk about Aussie convicts, we ought to find out what we can about the Gurrs and Gingells and why they were in Australia, hmm?
Post a Comment