Wednesday 28th December 2022
We had a bit of a slow start to the day as we needed to make a few phone calls to sort out some of our New Zealand plans (including to the hire car company who’d messed up our booking and the train company as we were having issues booking tickets on line).
Pete also wanted to make another batch of pizza dough, so before we knew it most of the morning had gone. Before leaving the hotel, we made a cheese and mushroom quesadilla using yesterday’s leftover tortillas. It made for a quick and easy lunch!
After eating, we caught the train from Chatswood into the city and walked to the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. The garden is quite substantial in size and a relaxing way to spend a sunny afternoon.
We then continued to the Sydney Opera House. We’d wanted to book a tour but when we tried to book tickets online they were fully sold out for the next couple of weeks. So we thought we’d just go and have a look at it up close. (We did end up getting tickets in the end, by phoning them up, but didn’t realise we’d get them at this point).
I hadn’t fully appreciated it was three completely separate buildings (or at least roof structures) until now.
We walked along the quay by the side of the opera house, where you get fabulous views of both the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the opera house. We were thinking of getting a drink in one of the bars along the waterfront, but on a sunny holiday afternoon they were all absolutely packed.
Instead we carried on into town, and came across Customs House. It’s got a couple of small exhibitions, so we had a quick look around.
Under the glass floor, there’s also a model of the city of Sydney, which I thought was quite cool.
By this point we fancied a cocktail so went to the nearby Apollonia. It’s a nice, very atmospheric bar, but the cocktails weren’t especially impressive for the price. We also shared a charcuterie plate, which was also good but not amazing.
As we were slightly disappointed by the Apollonia cocktails, we went to Double Deuce Lounge (a nearby cocktail bar) for one more drink. Again, it was a lovely, atmospheric bar. However, this time the cocktails were also pretty amazing. I had one if the best amaretto sours and Pete had an alcoholic watermelon slushy (which I thought wouldn’t be nice, but the surprising chilli kick actually worked brilliantly)
We got the train back to Chatswood, and back at the hotel Pete prepared a homemade pizza for us. It went very well with the rest of the red wine we had left, and was a nice end to a lovely day.
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 