It was a slow start to the day. The 3 hour time difference and late night slowed us down. But we hit the street and went in search of breakfast. We found a cute little cafe, Dandy Lane and sat inside, out of the wind. We all enjoyed a nourishing start and good coffee. There was a little confusion with Clare’s order, but the food was good.
We walked through the Franklin Square gardens with monuments to Franklin and a “Sometime Premier” and down onto Constitution Dock. Only a few of the Sydney to Hobart Race yachts had arrived, so we checked them out as they worked and prepared to leave again. They were quite impressive. We hung around there for quite a while and then determined that the next arrival was a long way off and it was a little boring just looking at yachts.
We wandered through Salamanca, checking out a couple of little art shops before heading up the Kelly Stairs which took us to (absolutely) Kelly Street. This is the prettiest little street, with gorgeous little cottages and gardens.
Kelly Street led us to Battery Point, a lovely little village.
We wandered around there for a while, then wound our way back towards the dock, checking out the Brook Street Pier shops. A tourist type set up with lots of distillery tastings.
We stopped in at a coffee shop in Salamanca Square to re-energise ourselves before a wander through the shops. The boys continued on to the yachts and we caught them up on the dock.
Then, more yachts. There was one due in so we waited and it arrived. This was the 7th arrival in a field of 103, No Limit. Then we waited until it came into dock. They spent a lot of time just offshore while the crowd stood around ready to welcome them. They finally did their lap of honour and we all applauded. It was pretty cool and they looked well pleased with themselves after the gruelling voyage across.
I was done with yachts. It is a spectacle, but there is a long time between action.
We decided we would do a quick lunch. It was starting to drizzle, so we popped into a fish and chip barge type thing, Mako, on the water and squeezed into a booth. It wasn’t fancy or great, but we were fed.
It was chilly and damp, so we needed somewhere nice to hang so we went back to the Brook Street Pier and the Rosie In My Midnight Dreams bar where we enjoyed some local beverages and watched the world go by. We could see everyone arriving off the ferry from MONA after a big day of art. The twilight markets were setting up and all the tourists were wandering along the promenade of all the little piers.
Eventually, the boys wanted to go and see another yacht arrive. Clare and I decided to stay in the Brook Street Pier complex and do a gin tasting with Lark Distillery. Between us we tried 5 and chose our favourite compromise to buy and enjoy on our Airbnb getaway. It was a difficult decision! We found the boys sitting on the dock. I’m not sure they had as much fun as us, so dragged the, away from the yachts.
It was quite chilly, so we walked back to the hotel, and sat in the bar, enjoying the end of the day, with trips up and down to the rooms for warmer clothes and the charging of phones. As we were so comfortable we ended up ordering dinner. More confusion as Clare’s laksa came overloaded with seafood, endangering her life. So the lovely staff made her a green curry. My laksa was awesome.
As we were all starting to fade, we ended the night, popping in to check out the pool. It was surprisingly busy. The water was warm, maybe we’ll come back another day.
2025-02-15