Sydney weekend

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Catherine and I took Mom away for a weekend to Sydney. We had a memorable time taking it slow and riding to and from Sydney on the train. I was unsure about it at first but after our experience, I would do it again to avoid the stress of driving to and around Sydney. Fun fact: last time I took this train was when Catherine was in utero.

We left on the midday train from Canberra Kingston station on a Friday afternoon. We were on the XPLORER train which had 3 carriages. We sat in carriage B (middle) and our 3 seats were located in the middle. Catherine and I sat together and Mom had a seat across the aisle by herself. We left on time at 11.55am. Shortly after departing, the hot food lunch menu was announced and orders were taken by an attendant. We ordered the vegetable curry, butter chicken and chicken macaroni and cheese. About an hour after our orders were taken, an announcement was made that hot food was ready to be picked up at the buffet car. The presentation was like airplane food but our meals looked and tasted better. The next 2 hours we looked out the window, took photos, slept or in Catherine’s case, went on the iPad. The trip didn’t drag on which I was afraid might happen. We had 9 stops before our final destination: Queanbeyan - Bungendore - Tarago - Goulburn - Bundanoon - Moss Vale - Bowral - Mittagong - Campbelltown. We arrived at Sydney Central station about 4pm.

We found our way to the platform for the North Sydney train. We took the T1 line four stops which took about 10 minutes. From the North Sydney station, it was another 5 minute walk to our hotel, View Sydney. We were given a harbour view room on the 8^th floor. The view was unreal. I loved just watching the ferries on the harbour, the trains going across the harbour bridge and just taking in Sydney’s amazing skyline. We watched the sunset before meeting up with friends for dinner at Delicado, a Spanish tapas restaurant not far from our hotel. We had a delicious and filling meal.

The next day was full on and I was really happy that Mom and Catherine made it through. We were out the whole day. We started off with coffee and hot chocolate and leftover snacks from our train trip. We took a train one stop to Milson’s Point, found the steps up to the Sydney Harbour Bridge where our adventure began. Again, I was unsure how this would go with Catherine and my Mom but they enjoyed it as much as I did. After a while, Catherine said it was a relaxing walk with great views. It took us about 20 minutes to walk across. We took more steps down to The Rocks and had breakfast, as promised, at Pancakes on the Rocks. We walked off breakfast going to The Rocks Market and to the Sydney Opera House along Circular Quay. We bought hats and sunglasses from the tourist shops, bubble tea to keep us going and then caught a ferry from Circular Quay to Barangaroo. The weather was perfect.

From Barangaroo we walked to Pitt Street Mall and made a brief stop at Uniqlo. Then I managed to successfully navigate Mom and Catherine to Darling Quarter via Queen Victoria Building shops and Town Hall station. We browsed a few shops along the way. Catherine bought some clothes and Mom found Korean cosmetics she’s been searching for. It was a productive afternoon of shopping. We had a good rest at Darling Quarter people watching near the FIFA Fan Festival before meeting up with more friends for dinner at Doodie Noodle Thai Kitchen. We had great Thai food among friends and then went next door to Gelatissimo for dessert while keeping track of the Matildas vs France game. It was fun being surrounded by the soccer mania. We walked with the crowds back to the train station. Luckily our train back to North Sydney wasn’t too busy. We had a great day.

We took it easy and slow on Sunday morning. It was quiet when I went out to get some breakfast food. There were a few people around going off to City to Surf, a 14km fun run (we chose a busy weekend to be in Sydney). We ate our breakfast in our room and enjoyed the remaining time admiring our view.

We checked out about 10.30am and took our bags and a train to Central Station. We walked to Starbucks and had a Caramel Machiatto and Matcha Lattes while soaking in the last bit of Sydney city vibes. Our train back to Canberra left on time but our arrival was delayed due to some speed limits and navigating timetables with other trains I think. We eventually arrived in Canberra at 4.30pm after having some hot lunch on the train (the roast chicken and roast beef we had were better than our meals on our way over) and watching some showers and cloud cover along the way.