Exploring with Opal

 First off: This is a fantastic hotel room that Paula found. When first married, we lived in places about half this size.

There are some negative points about the hotel.  Two minor ones: The kettle in the room did not work. Fortunately, we tried it out when we got here (to make decaf), and the staff replaced it right away. Second, the ramp up to the hotel ends in a road, but it's only the road to/from the hotel parking lot.

The almost-serious problem was that Paula got up during the night to go to the bathroom (through the kitchen) and almost slipped in a huge puddle made by the refrigerator. I don't know why, but the refrigerator was clearly seriously frosted over, with the inside back covered with a large sheet of ice. We're pretty sure that the refrigerator was defrosting itself and the tray to catch the water overflowed. However it happened, while we debated what to do about it, the refrigerator finished defrosting itself and is working fine now.

Yesterday we bought Opal cards--Opal is the local regional railways. Our plan for today was to explore using the Opal system, find our way to the harbor, and check out getting into the opera house, for which we have tickets tomorrow evening.

With the scooter, we have to get assistance getting on and off the train--an attendant puts a bridge across the gap, and calls ahead to our destination so that someone will be ready for us there. If that system were not in place, Paula could just step on or off and I could bring the scooter--but that would break the system, so I haven't suggested it.

Catching the train

On the train

Despite all "our" planning for the trip ("our" = Paula's), we had completely overlooked the fact that Sunday was Easter. We did find an IGA that was open and bought some supplies. Actually, a surprising number of things were open, possibly due to the size of the Asian population.

The harbor is apparently the place to go on holidays, though. Google reported that the harbor was maximally busy, and I believe it.

Harbor was absolutely mobbed

We got there

Notice the steps!

I was there, too!

People have been extremely helpful, both at the Opal stations and at the Opera house. The lift (elevator) was nonfunctional, so a very pretty young lady took us the secret way up to the level we will want to be in tomorrow. Paula and her scooter have gotten us into a lot of places that customers never see; we both think that's fun and funny.

We see a lot of things other people don't!

Upper level, inside the Opera House

Our pretty guide took us up to the floor with the box office and gift show, and we prowled around a bit--Paula bought some gifts--and we went out on the deck.

On the Opera House deck

When we were ready to go back, we found our guide, and she told us the lift had been fixed (I kept thinking, "Moving parts!"). We went out, found a less-crowded (but steeper) way back to the train, and returned to Mascot. Night descended while we were on the train.

We had dinner back in our little suburb of Mascot, at an Indian place we had checked out before. Everything was too spicy for us, but we enjoyed it anyway. I learned a new word: "khufi" is ice cream that hasn't been whipped, so it's more solid and melts more slowly. It is exactly what it sounds like it would be. (They were out of pistachio khufi so I had mango.)

Paula with a lager that I think I could drink

We both (especially Paula) were pretty tired and ready for bed.