Friday, March 9, 2018

On our way to Australia and New Zealand March 7,2018

we have been planning a trip to Australia for almost a year now and today we left on this trip.
We chose to fly on Qantas in premium economy class. Interesting that the flight leaves at 8:45 pm and arrives two days later at 6:45am.


We boarded the aircraft and found our seats to be very confortable and a good amount of leg room.
We were offered drinks before takeoff as well as a menu for dinner and breakfas)t.

After take off Darren came around to take drink 🍸 orders.
Later dinner was served on real china plates- all food and drinks were served on plates and glasses.


Once all the meals/plates were cleared away the cabin lights were dimmed (10:30pm) and I read and Sophia watched 3 billboards. We slept until 6am.
Around 9am breakfast was served along with the best coffee.
The 14 hour flight went by quickly since we slept some of the time and Darren gave us excellent service. He found out we were Greek and he grew up with lots of Greek friends, learned Greek from them and spent layovers in Thesolonica and Kalamata.



March 9


At the border control there is an passport system and since we had electronic visas we put our passports into the kiosk and get a pass , stand before a camera and continue. I was told to go to service assistance desk and wait for a border agent to inspect my passport and then let me through to go to baggage claim. We got ou. bags, found our driver and went to our hotel , the Radisson Blue.
 Ecause got to the hotel at 9am our room was not ready.
We had breakfast in the lounge and now waiting till noon on to check in.



We took a walk in the afternoon down to Circular Quay to see the Queen Mary II. It was really a nice view of the ship docked across from the iconic Opera House.  We walked along side this and then alon the promonade taking photos of the ship and the Opera House.
We walked done to the tourist area and looked at the shops, stopped for a dessert and coffee and then made our way back to our hotel.

The concierge recommended the Athenian Restaurant for dinner so off we went to experience a Greek meal.
We looked at the menu and there were very few traditional Greek foods. Speaking to the only Greek waiter we found out the business was sold in Dec. to new owners who changed the menu.
We ordered what the waiter recommended and the food was very good.
Back to the hotel to rest and get ready for our New Zealand 🇳🇿 cruise tomorrow.