Hotel California.

Monday 12th December 2016

This was our last day in Sydney or so we thought!  

We wanted to see things we hadn't seen before and see some of the things we had seen and enjoyed already.

We caught the bus to the Ferry terminal.  The bus journey was made more interesting by a black man with no shirt who had mental health problems and abused almost everyone in a short 5 minute journey.  He complained about children crying, the bus driver, ISIS, all Muslims, not forgetting all white people.  Thankfully no one engaged him in conversation and he got off pretty quickly after a few stops.  We then walked across the Harbour Bridge again to the North Sydney area of Kirribilli (or as we call it, Sillybilly).  We walked through an area that must be the most desirable and expensive properties in Sydney, as they look back across the harbour to the Bridge and the Opera House.

We couldn't get in, but this is Admiralty House which is the official redidence of the Governor General of Australia. Next door is Kirribilli House which is the second home of the Australian Prime Minister.

We walked around the headland and revisited Luna Park, a fun fair originally built in the 1930s.

And we had our snap taken again looking back to the Harbour.

 We caught a ferry across to Darling Harbour and then walked to the Fish Market.

The Fish Market reminded us more of Hong Kong than Hong Kong!

It was at least 95% full of Chinese and Japanese people.  We had decided we were going to eat lunch here....we were quite adventurous.

In the left tray is Sea Trout and skewered Baby Octopus and in the right tray is tiger prawns in chilli sauce and salt and peppered squid.  Here is the result....

We were very cautious about eating the octopus whole but we enjoyed it all even though the thought of it all in my stomach squirming about isn't too appetising!  It was certainly a busy place and a good experience.

We wanted to revisit the Opera House and we made a walk past for the last time.  We still loved it.  Onward through the Botanical Gardens and then we spent an hour in the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

We returned to our apartment and found the door key didn't work!!!  We quickly sussed that there was a problem.....our maths.  We had booked for 5 nights....but tonight was the 6th!  We went to reception with our tails between our legs and asked for forgiveness.  Fortunately, our stuff was still in the room and we could book an additional night (strangely we booked it on Booking.com whilst standing at reception because it saved about 25 dollars).  It felt a bit like the song Hotel California because 'we could check out but we could never leave', well similar?

So tomorrow we should pick up a hire car and travel up to the Blue Mountains.  I always hate the hire car process so I will be pleased (nay, amazed) if it goes smoothly.  There are always gimmicks and extras.  It's usually worse when you take the car back.  So, fingers crossed.