It's cloudy at the opera

The last two days have been relatively quiet in Sydney and the blue mountains. That was a relief after the tense ordeal of getting here, thanks to Jetstar Airways. They could be European, because they first cancelled our direct flight and rerouted us via Melbourne, that flight was delayed meaning we could miss the connection, but we got there just in time, however there was a 2 hour delay, which was subsequently cancelled. When Flo and I heard that, we literally ran to customer service, who offered us a flight the next day. I made a bit of fuss, and magically, we got 6 seats immediately on another flight. So 9 hours later than planned we arrived. Note that Jetstar is cheap, but of the 3 flights we booked, two were cancelled, and the other one, the time was put back to later in the day. Worst airline by far, so far.

The stress over and a deep sleep, we then went downtown to circular Quay and the opera house. The kids were impressed, even if the sun failed to show up. I don't know why, but the three older ones wanted to know how it was built and how it stayed up. So I did my best improvised explanation, which was largely based on by chance noticing steel supports in the concrete. I need to read Wikipedia before tomorrow.

Today, we followed up with what was planned as 3 hikes, one drive to a viewpoint, and one swim in a water in the beautiful Blue Mountains, which are about a 1h drive from Sydney. That was the plan. The reality was more modest because the weather, instead of clearing, got worse, and the drizzle turned to rain at 1530. So, no swim and no viewpoint. The third walk was also ditched because the 2nd one took way longer than planned. The reason being that we we went the wrong way, and went very far down the cliff face.

Despite the changed plans and the bad weather, the walks were really great, especially the 2nd one. The forest is extraordinarily luscious , and the trees are huge and impressive. Incredible place so close to a city if 5 million.Read more