Our Early Extra Day in Sydney

Jim rents a Lime electric bike; Jim and Rita go on harbor excursion

Last night we were told that we’d be arriving in Sydney at 2:45 am, and we happened to awaken in time to take some night-time photos and a video of the Sydney skyline and the famous Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. Here’s a picture taken while we passed under the bridge (top of picture):

We had been told this would be a free day with immigration check-in and no excursions, but last night we got word that Viking had arranged a free harbor excursion. Ours would be at 12:30, which left the morning free, so Jim took the free shuttle to downtown (Kings Wharf/Barangaroo) while Rita returned to the stateroom after clearing immigration.

I walked for awhile, taking a few pictures to show what the wharf was like, as I started walking toward the Harbor Bridge and the opera house. Here are three of them.

That interesting skyscraper on the left, I learned, was the Crown casino-hotel. I looked inside briefly, then exited. I found some Lime electric bicycles sitting around, so I downloaded the app and purchased a 60-minute package for $12.99 ($8.43 US) and headed off in the direction of the harbor bridge. There were lots of bike lanes, and bicycles were also welcome on the pedestrian paths if I went slowly, so I enjoyed the ride. I soon learned that if you go into a “no go” area (such as within a block of the opera house), the bicycle battery goes dead, and it’s very hard to pedal! The app also wouldn’t let me end my ride and park in such an area.

Here’s a piece of artwork in the middle of a roundabout. (There was a sign to say it was artwork!)

Continuing on, here was my first view of the Harbour Bridge:

Next is a picture I took at the exit from the opera house’s underground parking lot. It was downhill to get there, and I didn’t realize until after I took this picture that I was going to have no battery climbing back up the hill!

From there I took city streets in the direction of the shuttle stop, including this one-way street with a separated 2-way bike lane next to it. Notice the bicycle red light that I was stopped for:

Ending my Lime ride (without using my whole 60 minutes), I reboarded the shuttle and returned to the ship for lunch prior to our 12:30 harbor cruise. All the shuttles were battery electric. I asked the driver how often he has to recharge. He said every three days or so. (He said he had 70% charge when I asked him.) Here’s a picture of me with my electric bike next to the electric bus:

Notice the street sign, intended for diesel buses. Another thing I noticed: many of the cars had front license plates that were only 4 inches tall instead of the normal 8 inches. If we had that option in the States, perhaps fewer owners would violate the law which requires a front license plate.

I’ll end here and write another post about our harbor cruise and evening on the ship later.