Sydney....

Our "European tour" began with a short flight across "the ditch" where we had an eight hour layover in Sydney. I know what you're thinking because I thought the same thing, "New Zealand  to Australia, that's nothing, they're right next to each other". On the map it looks as though  you could  zip  between the two in minutes. In reality our flight out  of Wellington was more  than three hours. At this point I remember little of that flight mainly because the night before we had been goofing around until the wee hours of the morning and when you have to get up at  3am  to make a  6am flight it doesn't permit good rest. But, you know, at  that point in the trip we were beyond  caring if  we were  tired and instead were excited to see a bit of  Aus. Before traveling we acquired  Australian  visas and paid a  "departure tax" so we could leave the airport for a  few  hours and then return to board our night flight to London via Dubai.

Luckily, our bags were forwarded on and we didn't have to mess around with storing them while we were in the city.  With that said we boarded the train and headed for Circular Quay.

When we disembarked we found this interesting piece of performance art/advertising for the recent release of Clinique's new and improved Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion. :)

Being right on Sydney's famous harbor we took in the sights and had to start with the Opera House. It was absolutely beautiful to look at and we were most surprised to learn that that smooth and silky facade you see on every postcard and Sydney depiction in the movies is actually thousands and thousands of tiles.

After the Opera House we took in some  of the Botanical Gardens where we saw more sculptures than plants. Tim tried to approach and feed a  bird of paradise (with limited success).

We walked around downtown, took in a mall unlike anything I'd ever seen. The architecture and stained glass were amazing!

Before heading back to the airport we grabbed  a  Starbucks where they labeled my drink "Brigdnet".  Oh yeah.

Starting to feel the fatigue from  not sleeping the night before we headed back to the airport and boarded our first long flight to Dubai. On  our way through "duty free" we spotted this kangaroo jerky and yes it's main ingredient was kangaroo. And notice that if  kangaroo isn't  your cup of  tea then try the crocodile. Yum. :)

On the flight we soon discovered a new feature with the in flight entertainment: the Skycam. These long  flights give you the option of watching movies, listening to music, playing games,  and  checking the progress of the flight as you zoom  across the sky. But the Skycam is a little bit  of extra fun; a camera mounted on the tail of the plane you can see the  plane and what's happening  outside throughout the flight (provided there is enough light, of course). Below you can see  our A380  Airbus and "bus" is  an apt term. This puppy has multiple floors and can seat over 500 people! If you can afford the prices you could sit up top and descend via circular staircases that we saw the flight attendants bounding up and down throughout the flight.

Not surprisingly the flight was long: 13+ hours where we slept little and tried to stay hydrated and comfortable. Sometime during the night we hit some bad turbulence and you know sometimes it only lasts for a minute when the pilots ascend or descend into calmer air. Right. Well, we weren't  able to escape the bad pockets of air for hours. The first hour things went from bad to worse and we were feeling pretty uncomfortable to say the least. Things got to the point where the bumping and jolting was so distracting you couldn't even watch a movie. So we  turned off our seat back TV screens and braced for what would come. Into the second hour we were still bouncing around and feeling quite agitated. Since there isn't anything you can do about it and you can't escape it eventually we were so tired and stressed that you could only hope to drift off to sleep until the next big  jolt rocked the plane. As crazy as it sounds we were able to sleep a bit during what we assume was a storm. After some unspecified amount of time things started to settle down. I'm very happy to say that that was the worst of it.

Bleary but feeling ok we disembarked in Dubai for a two hour layover that we spent walking around and looking at the very modern airport. The plane was refueled, checked and cleaned and then we were herded back into the same seats we had on the previous leg. In comparison, the Dubai to London flight was ridiculously easy. We had no turbulence and it was only about seven hours in the air. After 13+ and flight half that long feels luxurious and quick. :) Perspective is such an interesting teacher.

We  landed in London to, no surprise, rainy weather, where we happily picked up our bags. I had had a bad feeling that after seeing them disappear on the conveyer belt in Wellington that we would never seen them again. Thankfully, I was wrong. :) From there we grabbed some  lunch and boarded a bus for Cambridge. Three hours through the English countryside which looked surprisingly like some areas in Minnesota. :)

To be continued in the next post where I take you through our time in  Cambridge.