Monday March 16th, 2026 Queen Anne, Sydney, Australia
- Neil Wylie
- Feb 13
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 20
Just a brief note about our planned stop in Brisbane, which was supposed to occur on March 14th, 2026, but was aborted due to high winds. We were so disappointed as we had planned to meet up with our niece, Emma and her boyfriend Sam – it had been 3 years since we last saw Emma. With our arrival into Sydney planned for just 2 days after Brisbane there were no options to fit in an extra port; the ship just crawled along at a snail’s pace for the originally planned and now additional sea day.
Sydney, our final stop in Australia and we are here for two days just like back in 2023 when we last visited. We decided to adopt a different, and perhaps more exciting, approach to our planning for this visit. We have not booked any tours and instead have decided to explore the sights of the city in a step by step approach; go to the first place, explore, and then decided where to go next – so we are going without a plan, for me a very anxious experience.
Once again Cunard has secured the prime berth in Sydney right in Circular Quay allowing easy walking access to the city and transport options like streetcars, trains and ferries; I think you’d be hard pressed to find a more ideal berth anywhere in the world. It was a beautiful bright and warm day as we disembarked and headed to the Belgian Café located just about 100 yards from the cruise terminal, in The Rocks area; we visited a couple of times on our last trip here and really liked it and hoped it had not changed, we weren’t disappointed. Australia seems to have a thing for excellent coffee, which suits us just fine, lattes at the Belgian Café were the perfect accompaniment to the superb avocado toast. Whilst enjoying our breakfast we discussed options for our next stop and decided to go to the Australian Museum using the public transport system.
Circular Quay has a very efficient transport set up; with the Opera House on one side and the cruise dock on the other, the base of the quay borders the city and houses several ferry docks and a station for regular trains, the underground trains and the street cars. Passengers arriving by ferry simply disembark and walk across a narrow concourse to reach the station, passing straight though to reach the streetcars or going upstairs for the other trains. Apple maps had given us directions but at that time we did not know the difference between the streetcars and the other trains, in fact we didn’t even know that Sydney had an underground system; it actually started operation in 1926 making it 100 years old. We assumed the directions were for the streetcars and flailed around a bit until we realized we needed to go back into the station and go upstairs for the underground train, which I admit sounds a bit weird. Sandra spotted the sign for our platform and from then it was easy going, using our credit cards to “tap in” to get onto the platform, and learning from our error in Singapore we used different credit cards this time. Imagine our surprise when, after boarding the nicely appointed train, it descended underground! From then on, even though the trains were a bit more modern including two seating levels, it felt very much like the London Underground; we only went a couple of stops but it was quite the thrill. It looked even more like London when we got off the train at Museum station and found the walls to be covered in, what looked like, Victorian era tiles – there was even a “Mind the Gap” sign. The exit turnstiles opened with a simple tap of the same credit card we’d used to “tap in”.
After a 5 minute walk across Hyde Park and past the Anzac Memorial (covered in my blog from 2023) we arrived at the Australian Museum; founded in 1827 it is the oldest natural history museum in Australia and consists of an original older building nicely melded with a newer structure. We were grateful that admission was free and really liked the gallery that displayed 200 of the museum’s most treasured pieces; this curated collection is particularly useful for visitors with limited time. There is a similar, though much larger gallery in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. I thought the gallery itself was a treasure with wood paneling, a raised walkway supported by columns and natural light from a domed ceiling. Impressive artifacts: the 10.7Kg gold bar nugget, the “bone ranger” – a human skeleton riding the skeleton of a famous racehorse and the opalized Pliosaurus. We also briefly visited the First Nations Gallery and the Dinosaur Gallery; both really well organized with very impressive artifacts – I especially appreciated the life sized model of a t-rex created for a BBC documentary in which they performed an autopsy.
Last time we were in Sydney the weather was a bit overcast and so we did not get to visit the Sydney Tower but today the weather was great and so off we went, recrossing Hyde Park with its parading white Ibis birds and into the business district. The Sydney Eye Tower stands 309m tall and rises from the Pitt Street shopping mall, it’s the second tallest observation platform in the southern hemisphere. Before we left the museum, I had bought tickets online for a 1PM entry; there was no queue at the entrance, and we were soon whisked up to the observation deck about 76 floors high. Large glass windows provided a 360 degree view across Sydney, and the beautiful weather made the scenes crisp and spectacular. We could see down into the harbor but, unfortunately, the view to Circular Quay was blocked by a large skyscraper – we could not see our ship. However we could pick out the maritime museum, the Queen Victoria Mall and Hyde Park amongst other significant sights. As platforms go, I thought this one was pretty standard compared to others we’ve ascended; it served its basic function and had a small café but that was about it. We decided to next visit the Queen Victoria Mall, a short walk from the tower.
Dating from 1898 the Queen Victoria Building occupies an entire city block and has had many uses over the years, but it now functions as a shopping mall with stores located on two levels, the upper level accessed by a raised walkway; the interior has extensive wrought iron, plasterwork and stained glass providing a very pleasant atmosphere for retail therapy. Cafes and food outlets extend down the entire length of the center of the ground floor. We made a terrible choice to have lunch at the upstairs Mozart Coffee Lounge, the less said the better – but it involved uncooked quiche and plastic chicken, that’s what I get for not checking reviews first. The mealtime was saved by a visit to the Metropole Café, on the ground floor, for coffee and cake.
Not finding a suitable shoe shop in the Queen Victoria we sought out a Skechers shop and each bought a pair of comfortable walking shoes, our first pair of Skechers – so far so good. A final shopping stop was made at the Sydney NBA store to buy a small gift for our grandson who has recently become basketball obsessed.
Yesterday we heard that the famous 1970’s singer / songwriter Leo Sayer would be performing on the ship tonight, and since both Sandra and I were fans back in “the day”, we did not want to miss this unique event, so we headed back to the ship to catch the earlier of his two concerts. Amazingly, as we were waiting for the elevator on the ship, Leo and his entourage passed us as he was heading for the theater – we were the only ones in the elevator lobby and could not believe it when he came right over to us and started to chat. Genuinely a nice guy, we talked about emigration – something we had in common as he had moved to live in Australia more than 20 year ago, he insisted on having his photo taken with us.
The Leo Sayer concert was amazing, he played all of the old favorites, and we couldn’t believe how he was still able to perform so well and with so much energy after all these years. It certainly was the loudest and liveliest event we’ve ever experienced on a Cunard ship and ended with a large portion of the audience, including us, dancing at the front of the stage in a huge septuagenarian melee. The Cunard entertainment director later called it the “first Cunard mosh pit” – a bit of a stretch, I think.
Following the show we got back off the ship and went into the nearby Rocks area for dinner. The Rocks Café was excellent; the tiny restaurant accommodates a larger crowd in its outdoor seating area - the place was very busy but somehow, we arrived at just the right time to get a nice table. The night was perfect for eating outdoors, warm and buzzing with the sounds of outdoor diners all along the street and distant music from an outdoor venue. The food and drinks were great, one of the best burgers I’ve ever had, and we left full and longing for our bed.
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