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Saturday morning we walked to Starbucks, less than a block away from the hotel, and saw that there was a Food and Wine Festival in that side of Hyde Park all weekend with entertainment that we could hear most of the day and evening. In addition, the G20 Financial Summit was being held in Sydney, so there was a larger security presence throughout the area. We checked in with the Intercruises desk to get our transfer time for our bus to the ship the next day and she asked if we had received our information letter, which we had not, so told us about the complimentary 4 hour coach tour starting at 8:30am. We had planned on taking the Hop On/Hop Off bus anyhow, so this worked well for us and we happily joined in.

Mario, our driver, was Australian via Slovenia and then Sweden, while Bob Macoun, our guide, was Australian born and one of most whose ancestors were shipped to Australia in the convict program. His great-great-great somebody was sent from Ireland for trying to pass off a one-pound note as a five-pound note.

The bus took us to see many of the sights. We went through some of the same areas we had seen on the way from the airport, but Bob gave as more detail about their history, sprinkled with some close to off-color jokes which kept us all chuckling. We went to the famous Bondi Beach and had a 40 minute stop to get a coffee and watch the beach action. Then we made several view/photo stops, before driving through a variety of neighborhoods, identifying where Nicole Kidman's home was, etc. Because Sydney is built along the coastline and around a number of harbors and beaches, there are many oceanfront or ocean view homes. The average house price is $500,000 with many small, older Australian homes going for $1-2 million, with 2 bed/1bath and no parking. Gas is the equivalent of $6/gallon. Salaries are about $30,000 or maybe $80,000 for a full professional, so financing a home is definitely a life-long project. Food in restaurants is certainly more expensive, with a ham and cheese or BLT sandwich close to $20 and a Venti Latte at Starbucks for $5.20.

After the bus tour, we strolled through the shopping area and had one of the $15 sandwiches and some wine for lunch. Mike, the concierge, had found another option for dinner which had a very interesting looking tasting menu (6 courses/6 wines) so we ate sparingly. He had booked us into a place in The Rocks called Baroque, a French bistro. Based on the menu and what he had said, we had a small, intimate French bistro in our minds, so were very surprised to find a large, very hard and industrial place. They told us the tasting menu was not available as they had just introduced a new menu, so we were disappointed on that level as well. Amazingly, based on our now much lower expectations, the meal turned out to be one of the best we have had in a while. The wine we picked was not to our liking, but the food itself showed a very high level of talent in the kitchen and they tried to make up for the lack of tasting menu, by sliding in a little taste now and then. We started with a tiny espresso cup of potato veloute (a creamy little soup). Then we shared a chicken liver "parfait", which was more fluid than we expected and extremely rich, accompanied by a pear/ginger chutney. They brought us their famous beet salad (loved by Daryl and not a dish favored by Rob) to taste. The main course was beef for Rob and a lamb combo for Daryl. They were both extremely complicated and successful presentations.

After another night at the Sheraton, we had the luggage ready for pickup at 8am, headed for Starbucks for a coffee which we drank in Hyde Park. We boarded the bus to the White Bay cruise terminal at 11am and after some confusion at check-in, got onto the ship where our stateroom was already available. While the cabin is the same class as we have had over the last several cruises, because of its location at the back of the ship, it is configured differently. We were unable to get one of the 12 Oceania Suites on Deck 12 for both cruises and okayed this one on Deck 11 so we would not have to move in the middle. It is allover more "compact", but still has some of the amenities we have become accustomed to. We would probably not book it again, especially because of its location at the very back of the ship. It is convenient to the restaurants, but cabins in the aft area generally get more wave action. We headed to the Terrace for the light lunch options. There we saw some of our old friends, restaurant manager Boris, maitre d' Alex and waiter Gilbert. After lunch, Daryl went up to Barristas to grab some lattes and spent time talking to Damien, the General Manager, who said that Bob Binder, the co-Chairman and founder of Oceania uses our cabin while aboard and was just in it before us.

The ship departed port at 6pm and we had fantastic views of Sydney, the climbers on the Bridge, the Opera House, and the lovely homes as we headed out of the bay. Dinner, as usual, was at Jacques – our first night aboard selection. We spent most of dinner talking to Loredana, the Executive Sommelier. We have known her for a few years, since she was just a lower level wine person. She had been on vacation and came back aboard to find she had been promoted. She is going to check out the cellar for wines for us to purchase at the Wine Bazaar, which unfortunately is well into this first cruise. However, we can buy for them to hold in storage for our second cruise as well.

Monday was a slow day at sea as we headed to Melbourne. Daryl did a load of laundry, scribbled notes for the journal and checked e-mail and Rob loaded photos. Dinner was the mega-meal of 7 courses/7 wines at La Reserve, the Wine Spectator restaurant. We both ate parts of the various courses and drank some of the various wines. It is a fantastic meal, with excellent wines, but very rich and outside most of our normal food patterns.