They assured passengers that they weren't missing connections as the entire airport had closed - all incoming flights were diverted to Brisbane, and all outgoing flights were postponed.  Apparently while the 747 was capable of making zero visibility instrument landings, the need arose so infrequently in this part of the world, that none of the airports were up to code.

While sitting on the ground in Brisbane, our flight attendant, John, took the opportunity to teach us Cribbage - mildly confusing game, but fun.

We returned and landed in Sydney after about an hour in Brisbane - entry through customs was uneventful.

We climbed into an airport shuttle with our bags - and left for the airport on the wrong side of the road.  We made it (somehow) to our hotel - the Mercure Sydney on George St near China Town in the south end.  Glad Dawnise remembered the name of the street it was on - there are apparently ten Mercure hotels in the Sydney metro area.

Nice place - 15-some floors, nice decor.  Checked in, the porter took our bags to our room.  Despite being told by several sources that tipping is not the norm in Australia, I tipped him.  He was appreciative.
 

We showered and left on foot to see the city - north on George St.

We ended up walking the entire length of the city - all the way up to the Opera House at the north end.  The building is as impressive in person as in the pictures.

The first observation was the number of motorcycles in the city -- you couldn't go 10 minutes without seeing at least two.  Mostly small (engine-wise) Japanese sport-types being used as city transport.  They put bags on anything.  Saw a few Italian and English bikes (Ducati's and Triumphs, respectively), and two of only 4 Harley's we'd see all trip.

We later learned that it takes two years to get your motorcycle license - one year with a permit, during which time you can't ride anything larger than 250cc's, and another year with a provisional licence, where you have a big red  "P" above your license plate.

We made our return trip by way of the Sydney Botanical Gardens.  Our first taste of the native wildlife.  They grow big spiders down under -- "normal" spiders the size of American tarantulas.  And with such bright bodies they were almost certainly poisonous (we didn't stop to ask them).  Hundreds and hundreds of bats - roosted in the tops of trees - they were chattering at each other - it took us a minute to figure out where the racket was coming from.  We walked under the canopy so we could look at them without staring into the sun - I don't mind bats, but with that many around, I admit that my skin started to crawl.

After leaving the gardens we stopped at St. Mary's Cathedral -- the largest and oldest gothic cathedral in Oz.  Impressive building - albeit a bit spooky (guess that was the point).  We chatted with the docent - who suggested we check out the crypt downstairs.

Talk about spooky.

From the cathedral we headed back to the hotel, and on the way we found a wine store and picked up two bottles of a local Muscat - one for that evening, one to take home.

Back at the hotel we looked at the scale on the map - turned out we had walked nearly 10 miles.  No wonder we were so tired - it hadn't looked that far this morning.  Tossed a bottle of the Muscat into the mini-bar to cool.

We showered and headed down for dinner - only to find that the restaurant didn't open for dinner 'till 6:30pm.  Back up to the room, a brief rest, then back down for dinner.  The food was OK, but not great.  The service was, well, terrible.  We swore off the hotel resturant for dinner.

Brought a cheese tray back up to the room and ate it with the Muscat -- good stuff.  Toasted the start of our five year delayed honeymoon.
 

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