Monday 2nd January 2023
Before getting a train into the city, we went for a breakfast Bahn Mi at Enmore Delicious Roll. We had the roast pork Bahn Mi and it was definitely one of the best Bahn Mi we’ve had in Australia, with a very generous filling of juicy (but not too fatty) pork with a crunchy crackling.
When we arrived at the quay, we had about an hour before our tour, so relaxed outside the Opera House.
The tour itself was very interesting and enjoyable. I hadn’t quite appreciated just how vast the Sydney Opera House was until today. There are several theatres, although we were unfortunately not allowed to take photos of the largest and most impressive areas (apparently it’s forbidden due to the proprietary props on stage).
At the end of the tour, we were told we could get a discount on performances if we showed our tour tickets. Unfortunately we’re leaving Sydney today, so won’t be able to take advantage of this. But if you’re interested in doing a tour and seeing a show, do the tour first so you can get a discount on the show booking.
After the tour, we walked through Hyde Park to the Australian Museum. It reminded me a bit of the Natural History Museum in London, with loads of dinosaur skeletons and stuffed animals. It’s free to enter and would be a great museum to take children.
Before picking up our car, we went for a lateish lunch at Macchiato Wood Fire Pizza and Coffee Roasters, where we ordered an interesting prawn and pepperoni combo. It worked surprisingly well,
We enjoyed the pizza so much that we ordered a second to share – this time pulled beef ribs. It was actually even better than the first.
We then walked to museum station to catch the train. It reminded me a lot of the London Underground!
We went to pick up our hire car, then drive to the Blue Mountains (via our hotel to quickly pick up our bags). We stopped off at Wentworth Falls, where there are several different walking trails. You could easily spend half (or even an entire) day here. However, as it was late afternoon we didn’t want to do one of the longer routes as we wanted to be back before dark. We followed the Weeping Rock circuit to Fletchers Lookout, which was an easy 30 minute walk (though there were quite a lot of steps). The lookout had some beautiful views over the mountains.
We then continued to the top of the falls (about another 10 minutes, and again fairly easy going), before returning to the car park.
We drove to the Alpine Motor Inn, where we were staying for the night. It’s a pretty standard no frills motel, perfectly fine for a one night stay. It’s slightly out of town in a main road, so after dropping our bags we drove into Katoomba to pick up a bottle of wine and a few snacks. We’d had a substantial late lunch so didn’t feel the need to eat out anywhere and went back to the motel for the evening.
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 