Short drive from here to Sydney which was trouble-free – until we got to Sydney itself. Even then, it wasn’t too bad on the outskirts, but there is much renovation and building work going on, so finding the hotel was just a teensy bit stressful, not helped by the satnav losing track of me amongst the very tall buildings.

Got there in the end, even if I had to drive up the ramp to the hotel front the wrong way, to the consternation of the flunkey on the door. Got it sorted and checked in to our room in this superbly positioned and well-appointed hotel.

Check out this view from our room:

The room itself is comfortable, but rather smaller than we have been used to. Still, it’ll have to do….

Managed to drop the hire car off, not without some difficulty finding my way there, then walked back to the hotel (about half an hour). This was a good way of getting a flavour of Sydney. Busy, but not as bad as I was expecting, lively, bustling, dirty in places but some nice spaces to walk in.
The hotel knew it was our 40th wedding anniversary, so it was nice to get a bottle of fizz on the house to celebrate.

Being lazy, we booked a table at the restaurant in the hotel for dinner. Prices were on the high side, but not totally outrageous. This is Sydney, after all. However, I took umbrage when we were charged 24 dollars EACH (about £13.50) for a bowl of indifferent minestrone soup. It didn’t even have any pasta in it!!

As a gesture, the hotel reduced the overall bill by 12 dollars, but we will NOT be having dinner here again.

View from our hotel room at night:

Checked out the price for breakfast. 45 dollars each for the buffet. Outrageous again. There is an a la carte option which may prove to be a better choice – we have an earlyish start tomorrow for our Blue Mountains tour. Watch this space…..