If it's Friday, this must be...

I spent my birthday sailing the Tasman Sea.

How's that for an opening line?

Our vacation started with three days in Sydney. What an amazing city. Sydney is a city of contrasts. The very first thing that struck me was that it reminds me of the 1960s. The architecture of many of the high rises is right out of that era. The next strong impression was the interesting juxtaposition of old and new. There are a lot of very pretty 19th century buildings standing right next to soaring steel and glass skyscrapers.

I always thought San Francisco Bay was big, but I wasn't prepared for the sheer size of Sydney harbor. There are 24 or 26 separate bays within the harbor itself -- it's simply immense. We stayed at a hotel on Darling Harbor, close to the city center. A handy location, since we like to walk whenever we have a chance in a new place. We wouldn't have much time in Sydney and the morning we arrived we immediately set out to explore.

My father-in-law was born in Sydney, in King's Cross (yep, the one with the shady reputation, though it wasn't that bad in 1919 ;-), so before we left I printed out a Google map from our hotel to the Cross. Google said it was about 2 miles and halfway between was Hyde Park where the Anzac Memorial is located -- a nice stretch of the legs, we thought. Hah! We didn't take into account the terrain (hills!). We walked to the Cross, but learned our lesson and took taxis after that.

Our next stop was the Rocks, the location of the first settlement in Sydney. It's been turned into a charming area of shops and cafes set into the old buildings and well worth a visit. The other reason for visiting is to climb the Argyle stairs to the Harbor Bridge. We walked about three quarters of the way across the Bridge before turning around. All of the guide books are right: if you ever have the opportunity to visit Sydney, try to walk the Bridge. The view is incredible. And you get the bonus of watching the crazy people doing the Bridge Climb -- walking up the arch of the bridge! There was no way in hell that I'd do that, but it's fun to watch others go up.

We capped our first day with a late lunch of the lightest tempura battered fish and chips I've ever had and a VB (Victoria Bitters, my new favorite beer). Between the 16 hours spent on a plane, followed immediately by a day of walking around Sydney, I was pretty much toast.

The next day was consumed by checking in with the cruise line and being tendered out to our ship, the Rhapsody of the Seas. There were three other cruise ships docked at the available spots at the piers, so the Rhapsody had to anchor out in the harbor. On the one hand, having to take a Tender to get back into Sydney was less convenient than just walking off the ship, but on the other hand the ship anchored in the bay was a beautiful sight. We decided to just spend the rest of that day on board since we had a city tour planned for early the next day. We were in for a real treat that night. We had a view of the city lights, including the Bridge and Opera House, that we would never have seen if we'd been docked at the pier.

I'm so glad we took the city tour. The driver/tour guide was a hoot. Young, friendly, with a sexy Australian accent. We drove through some incredible neighborhoods (and saw the back of Nicole Kidman's house and the building on a finger wharf where Russell Crowe owns the top floor), had a stop at Bondi beach, and got a smattering of local history. Very fun.

This is the afternoon of our second day at sea. Tomorrow morning we'll be cruising Milford Sound and then on to Doubtful Sound. They're considered the fjords of New Zealand and are supposed to be quite spectacular. I can't wait!