We were lucky enough to have a visitor from home for a couple of weeks! We packed in so much in two and a half weeks that I don’t think it would all fit on one blog post, especially when you add pictures too. Therefore I have split it up into smaller chunks, starting with the October Long Weekend in Sydney. This is post 1 of 5.
Mark’s Dad landed in Sydney late on Friday 30th September. We had already been to check into both rooms at our hotel earlier in the day to make it a smooth process in the evening, so after meeting him at the arrivals gate, we hopped into a taxi and headed back into the city. We were staying in the Vibe Hotel North Sydney, so the taxi took us over the Harbour Bridge and we managed to get a first glimpse of the Opera House sails too.
After such a long flight, we weren’t sure what the plan for the evening would be (bearing in mind it was already 22:45 when we got back to the hotel) but we decided to check out the closest pub to help ease the jet lag. The Rag and Famish had already been recommended to us, and it turned out to be a lovely old bar and restaurant just 5 minutes walk from the hotel. The beer was good too, and we would end up returning before the weekend was through!
On Saturday morning we grabbed a coffee and a croissant for breakfast from a café nearby, before meandering down through Wendy Whiteley’s secret garden to Lavender Bay. We walked around past Luna Park with it’s iconic entrance, to Milson’s Point, stopping to take plenty of photos along the way. The weather was a bit changeable, so we hopped on the ferry as it started to drizzle and headed for Circular Quay. While not his first time in Sydney, Mark’s Dad had last visited in 2006 for the Ashes and hadn’t had a lot of time to explore, therefore we took him to the Opera Bar for a beer and to take in that stunning view. Once the rain had stopped and the sun came out, we had the perfect spot, and the experience was not at all spoiled by a seagull stealing our blue cheese from the platter we had ordered!
From the Opera Bar we walked through the Botanical Gardens and around to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair to enjoy the different views of the bridge and the Opera House. We walked back through the gardens and around to the Overseas Passenger Terminal where there was a long queue of people waiting to get on a cruise ship. It started to rain again, so we popped into The Squire’s Landing for some refreshments, but any nice views we would have had were blocked by the ship. On the other hand, someone did give me their spicy pineapple margarita order because they had somewhere else to be!
Afterwards, we took the train back over to North Sydney and walked back to the hotel for a rest, and to plan our evening!
We went back to the Rag and Famish to eat, then to the Treehouse Hotel for a drink. The downside of staying in North Sydney is that, because it is the business district, there aren’t many places open on a weekend, especially a public holiday weekend! We ended up being the last people in the bar there as they cleared up around us and then the only other place we found open was Billy Barry’s, where some loud, drunk people made it not quite as pleasant as we had hoped for.
Sunday was NRL Grand Final day! We started off with nice breakfast in Kirribilli at Cool Mac, an Asian fusion café. Then we walked over the Harbour Bridge, enjoying the views and the changing light on the Opera House sails. We discovered the Pylon Lookout and Museum, so eagerly paid for tickets to get an even higher viewpoint over the harbour (without paying the cost of the BridgeClimb). The museum was really interesting too, documenting the planning, building and opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Once done, we continued on over the bridge, and walked through the Rocks back to Circular Quay where we boarded a ferry to Darling Harbour. We walked around one side, and then, conscious of time, headed back to North Sydney for a quick refresh before heading to the Olympic Park.
We managed to miss a lot of the crowds on the way there, but once seated, the stadium soon started to fill up! The Grand Final was between two Greater Sydney teams, The Penrith Panthers and the Parramatta Eels, and the headliner for the entertainment was Jimmy Barnes – An Aussie Rock Icon, even though he’s from Scotland!
The atmosphere was brilliant, and it felt like a true Aussie experience, although I didn’t fully understand the rules of the game. Afterwards, Mark somehow managed to wend his way through the crowd and ‘follow instructions’ which meant that we were some of the first people on the train back to the city. We made our way back to North Sydney, which was where we went wrong – absolutely nothing was open so we went to bed with no dinner!
Monday would be a long day as we were driving back to Forbes, so we checked out of the hotel and left North Sydney pretty promptly, as we were learning our lesson and assuming there wouldn’t be anywhere open. We stopped in Penrith for some breakfast at Mr Watkins, which was as good as we remembered! We had a quick stop at Ten Tops for some snacks, then drove to the Panthers Stadium (the winners of the previous evening’s match) and Merch shop before setting off on route back to Forbes!
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