A Week Without a Friday! October 18 - First Day in Australia!

No Friday!

We had a wonderful breakfast and lunch at White Sands with Frank and Linda. We said a fond farewell to them. Being with them is always full of great conversation.

 After lunch Mark drove our rental car back to the airport very easily. We had about an hour's delay - our 2nd plane delay on our trip.

 

Los Angeles from the air

 But, we arrived at LAX easily and were met, for our first time, by a wheelchair to make it easier for Mark. We spent a few hours in the Sky Lounge, mostly reading. But, we also met two friendly men from The Commodores who were off to a gig in Auckland and then onto Sydney. They made Barbara feel more assured of the length of the time in the plane as they do long trips fairly often.

    We had good seats on an AirBus 350-900 with extra leg room. We left about 45 minutes late because two seats in First Class had broken.  So, we left around 11:00 p.m. on Thursday - and arrived 15+ hours later on Saturday! (Crossed the International Dateline)

     The flight was definitely long. There were meals after take-off and before landing with a snack at hour #7.  And, the food was pretty good. Barbara had leg cramps and did a fair amount of walking in place by the bathrooms as well as yoga stretches. She thinks it was because her feet did not touch the floor in the seat. However, she did sleep around 5 -6 hours. Mark slept more like 6-8 hours. 

   We had a wheelchair on landing and insisted that Barbara ride, too. That made going through Customs incredibly easy and the wheelchair people recommended an Uber over a taxi and we took their advice taking an Uber to 38 Harbour Street. The number to call for housekeeping did not answer, so we were standing outside wondering what to do. But, 2 lovely men let us in and showed us where the mailbox to our flat is where we knew there was a key inside. Whew.

Chinese Friendship Garden in Sydney

38 Harbour Drive, Sydney

   

Dinner at LiLong

We are in a modest flat in a great location in China Town. We went out fairly immediately to a grocery store and got some provisions. Then- a rest before we explored our neighborhood. It is great - many pedestrianized areas and fantastic food. We are walked to the Tumbalong Park near the Chinese Garden of Friendship. We ate at LiLong - dumplings, scallion pancakes and Mongolian lamb. So good!

Underpass of highway

Sydney skyline

      We think the jet lag will be less because we kept busy all day in the daylight.