Our flight from San Francisco to Sydney was mostly uneventful. We left nearly an hour late because United had canceled their flight to Melbourne and were trying to get some of the people onto our flight; there was a bit of turbulence – enough for the captain to tell the flight attendants to stay in their jump seats for at least 30 minutes; the belt at baggage claim mysteriously stopped for quite a while before finally delivering our bags. But the various delays may have worked in our favor; we arrived at the Shangri-La before 9am and our room was ready (official check-in time is 3pm), so we were able to drop our bags and even do a little unpacking before heading out to explore.

AussieWalk IVV, the Australian affiliate of the International Volkssport Association, offers year-round walks in a few Australian cities. Today, we did their Sydney City 12k walk, which let us explore the central part of Sydney.

We stopped at Dutch Smugglers Coffee for some light refreshment and even lighter caffeine on our way to the starting point of the walk. We stopped again at the Customs House to take the first of many selfies today before reaching the official starting point, across the street at Circular Quay railway station.

Easter Monday is a public holiday here, and there were a lot of people enjoying their day off (as well as plenty of tourists from all over the world), so it was crowded. We didn’t linger at the station; instead, we walked along the concourse, passing the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House along our way.

I wondered what was on top of the bridge in the first picture, so I zoomed in – the top of the bridge is a tourist attraction!

The walk took us through part of the Royal Botanic Garden – we could have spent the rest of the day there! There were many unfamiliar plants and animals there, like these Yellow Buttons and Australian White Ibis, both of which we’d see again and again throughout the day.

We walked around the waterfront enjoying the views until we reached Mrs. Macquarie’s Point, where we had to answer the first question of four to prove we’d done the volksmarch.

We continued walking along the bay all the way to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, where we left the Royal Botanic Garden proper for The Domain and thence for Macquarie Street and some of Sydney’s most famous buildings, including the State Library, the State Parliament House, Sydney Hospital (with Il Porcellino, the wild boar, in front), the old Sydney Mint, and the Hyde Park Barracks.

We took a short break for lunch at Hydeaway and then resumed our journey in Hyde Park itself, where we saw the Archibald Fountain and the ANZAC Memorial.

The next part of the trip took us through Sydney’s Chinatown, a very busy place.

And then we returned to the future, passing by The Exchange and one of the many no-pay payphones we saw all across Sydney which provide continent-wide calls for free.

The next part of the path took us through Darling Harbour, passing the International Exhibition Centre, the National Maritime Museum, and onward to the Barangaroo Reserve.

We walked around the Reserve on the Wulugul Walk, and then by the Walsh Bay development, filled with restaurants, museums, and other artwork.

We were nearly back to our starting point; we walked under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and had one more look at the Opera House.

Then it was back to Circular Quay to finish the walk, with a brief stop at Cadman’s Cottage to find the sculpture which was the answer to the last question for the Volksmarch.

We had dinner at a local pub (Endeavour Tap Rooms) and took another walk to Circular Quay to admire the Opera House by night (and for me to have some gelato).

The jet lag is catching up with us – but I think we did pretty well for our first day in Sydney.

The drive to SFO was mostly uneventful. I couldn’t figure out how to get the car to go into cruise control for quite a while before I finally noticed the cruise control symbol to the right of the “D” on the gear selector – I hoped that nudging the selector would turn on cruise control instead of putting the car into neutral, and I was right.

The car did brake on its own once for no reason that I could detect; fortunately, it obeyed when I hit the accelerator. And when we got to Hertz, I couldn’t figure out how to see the mileage to write it down on the return form, so we had to wait for an attendant. It’s on the “Software” menu – what could be more obvious?

I’m writing this post from the United Polaris lounge, where we had a very pleasant small dinner. I was pleasantly surprised by their “Local Beets” salad – it was good, and I say that as someone who has a lifetime record of hating beets. The lamb kebab was also quite nice, and the chocolate chip skillet cookie was excellent, even if it wasn’t quite halachically kosher for Passover. I also really enjoyed the wine (The Prisoner, a very pleasant red blend). I’m not sure that the Polaris Lounge is quite up to the standard of the BA Concorde Lounge in Heathrow, but it’s the best lounge I’ve ever experienced while flying on a US airline, and it’s far more attainable (the Concorde Lounge is only available if you’re flying First through Heathrow).

Onward to Sydney!

We usually rent a car from Hertz when we’re flying out of SFO; we can walk to the nearby location, seeing wonderful flowers on the way; it’s fairly cheap (thanks, IBM!); and we don’t have to sit in close quarters with a stranger on the trip to the airport (that will come soon enough on the plane!).

Today was no exception, but they had a surprise for us – a Tesla Model 3, even though we’d reserved a cheap class C car.

They gave me a five-minute crash course in Tesla and turned me loose. The driving experience has been OK so far, though I find the regenerative breaking rather aggressive compared to our Priuses, and I’m not a fan of having to look to my right to see the speedometer instead of having in front of me, like every other car I’ve ever driven (including the electric Nissan and Hyundai we test-drove a few weeks ago).

Where I wish I’d paid more attention was after we got the car home – I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off! It turns out that you don’t actually have to turn off a Tesla; it figures out that you’ve left it alone and goes to sleep. But then it surprised me again when we went out for a walk and I noticed the A/C running; I guess that’s normal behavior, but it was still alarming.

It’ll be interesting driving it to SFO. And then it’ll be Hertz’s problem, not mine.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it; it’ll be Monday when we touch down in Sydney.

We’re packed except for those things we’ll need before we leave; Diane convinced me that we’d be better off doing as much packing today as possible, and she was right.

Apple put out an urgent security fix, so I updated all of our devices; while I was at it, I upgraded Home Assistant to the April version (I did take a backup first, of course). All of the upgrades were uneventful.

So it was another busy day with not much interesting to say.

We spent a lot of today getting ready for our upcoming Australia trip. We went to REI to pick up more permethrin, socks, and a pair of rain pants for me; Diane used up all the permethrin spraying our clothes; we started organizing things to pack; and Diane charged her stash of camera batteries.

I restrained myself from upgrading Home Assistant to the April release; it has some interesting improvements in the UI, but I won’t really be able to take advantage of them for a while, so why take the risk?