Sydney, Australia, 2019 Day 1

Getting here was an epic journey in order to use our Aeroplan points. The business class routing took us from Toronto to Vancouver to Taipei to Bangkok to Sydney, a 48 hour journey, door to door. It was challenging to say the least, but Jill and I travel well together. The lounges were like an oasis for each layover especially in Bangkok where our 7 hour layover included a neck and shoulder massage in one lounge, a shower in another and then chill and food in one more. 7 hours in Bangkok was the longest. I found myself questioning our decision when we weren’t even half way through the 13 hour flight to Taipei … but we did it.

We arrived in Sydney and breezed through customs and immigration to our taxi that took us to our hotel in Kings Cross, where my life began so many years ago. We changed into our shorts after a shower and headed out to walk down to Woolloomooloo, through the Botanical Gardens, passed the Opera House and on to The Rocks. The heat was almost unbearable maxing out at slightly over 42 Celsius which is 107 Fahrenheit. We made it to the Rocks Saturday market and noshed out on a spinach, cheese and beef Turkish gozleme. Delish. A Southerly change brought a cooling wind and then thunderstorms that started soon after we returned to our hotel by bus. We watched the rain and hail come down from our fifth floor room as we enjoyed a picnic of roasted chicken with tomatoes and olives while watching the Food Network. I couldn’t keep my eyes open as we were both sleep deprived. We both sunk into our over soft luxury bed.