When we arrived in Sydney we found that the Queen had got there before us. She is tied up right in the city centre and is a dominating presence in the passenger dock.

I am old enough to remember when the “Queens” (Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth II) still ran from Southampton to New York and, British design and built, were the pride of Britain; gracious and powerful. It would be hard to say that the new Queen Elizabeth is graceful, and it is certainly not British built. In fact, it looks like a floating apartment block as you can see in the picture below.

As we walked past this afternoon, passengers were arriving to board the boat so I imagine she will be leaving in the next 24 hours. Hopefully the weather will improve before then because it will certainly be an impressive site to see her pass underneath Sydney Harbour Bridge. In the mean time, maintenance work is going on around the ship.