We left Canberra on Sunday on the noon train. It’s a journey that usually takes just under five hours, with 8 stops along the way, at speeds of only around 80-90 km per hour. In first class, which simply means more leg room and quick access to the buffet car, it only cost $60AUD per person.
Our trip, however, took an hour longer. At the picturesque old train station at Goulburn, our three-car train from Canberra was scheduled to take on three more cars coming from elsewhere, but that train was running an hour late.
We took the opportunity to get off the train and get some fresh air.
When we reached Sydney at 5:30 p.m, it was pouring rain, so we grabbed an Uber to our hotel.
This time, for our longer stay in Sydney, we’re booked into the Skye Suites. This upscale building is condominium residences from floors 10 through 27, and 73 total hotel suites from floors 2 to 9.
The Expedia photos looked like this:
Minus flowers on the table, the pictures of the room are true to what we got. Our accommodation is a “Deluxe Studio Suite”, which means there is no wall or door between the bedroom area and the living areas. It is by far the most expensive per night cost of our entire 5 month trip. There’s a premium to be paid for being right in Sydney’s core, akin to staying right in downtown Toronto or Vancouver.
The view below is from our 5th floor balcony, which overlooks Kent Street. The buildings across from us are all offices. Ted says he’s going to get perverse pleasure from having coffee on our balcony and watching people work.
I will want to remember the level of service in this hotel. The head housekeeper spent a few minutes on our first morning helping us get oriented, emptying the (pay) minibar to give us extra cooler and shelf space, asking about our cleaning schedule, bath product and linen preferences, and giving us a larger-than-normal supply of coffee pods for the espresso machine.
We were very impressed. Upon thanking him – profusely – he simply said “it is what you should expect from a 5 star hotel”.
As soon as we dropped suitcases in our suite on Sunday night we did a quick shop at the Coles Local just before it closed at 8:00 p.m. – a couple of ready-to-heat curries and some breakfast food.
On our “real first day, after our time with the head housekeeper and a quick bread and cheese lunch, we headed to the much larger Coles at World Square, just 1km away, for a bigger shop. As was the case in Canberra, it’s our intention to prepare most of our meals, with our eating out reserved for those times when we’re connecting with friends over meals. The exception just might be Frango the delicious-smelling Portuguese charcoal-roasted chicken place just a few steps down the street.
Since there was a break between the day’s rain showers we detoured to walk around Darling Harbour, which is less than 10 minutes from where we’re staying.
It is the site of dozens of restaurants, cafés, and parks, as well as the National Maritime Museum. Since we were intent on groceries, not sightseeing, Ted did not have his camera with him. I snapped a couple of photos just in case we don’t get back there in sunshine. There’s quite a bit of rain predicted during our stay here.
The view of the Maritime Museum from the bridge is almost obscured by the combination of sailboats and the decommissioned naval ships on display in the harbour.
Our settling in process has been less than exciting, and that’s absolutely fine. We enjoyed our slightly slower pace in Canberra, and are looking forward to continuing that for the next two months until we move into full tourist mode in Poland in May.
It might also mean less time blogging and more time reading what other people write.
Rose and Ted’s Excellent Adventure 