We rode the train from Singleton to Sydney this past weekend, leaving early Saturday morning and arriving before lunchtime. Except for the lost retainer (how can it simply disappear?) on the train, it was a pleasant journey. We've always envied people who live where public transport is clean, safe, and affordable--and now we're those people!
Some highlights from the weekend: Sunday lunch at Doyle's restaurant, where we had a delectable seafood lunch; riding the ferry from Circular Quay to Watson's Bay and back; walking across Darling Harbor at night; eating sushi at a Japanese restaurant; and not driving!
Everything in Australia is incredibly expensive--except when it isn't . Trains, buses, subways and ferries are dirt cheap. For a flat fee of $21 per adult (half price for the first child, free for subsequent ones) we rode the train Saturday, then took the subway, and finally rode the buses. Even better--on Sunday, for $2.50 per person, we rode the ferry, the subway, and the train home. We couldn't have driven to the city and parked for anywhere near the same amount.
The boys wanted to go to the top of the Sydney Tower, so that was our first destination Saturday afternoon. We had great views of the city. It gets dark right around 5:30 p.m., so by the time we left the tower it was dark. Sydney is a very safe city after dark. There is one neighborhood that people are warned away from, but the rest of the city is filled with people out on the streets. We had no specific dinner destination Saturday night, but when we passed a Japanese restaurant with a unique "sushi train" (how could I not think to photograph it?), we decided to go for novelty. Liam has always liked sushi, but Andy hasn't been fond of what he's had before . This restaurant changed his mind! He loved it. Ordering from the menu and confirming what was in the sushi was challenging--the restaurant's staff barely speaks English because they don't need to: the entire time we were there we saw two other non-Japanese groups eating. The rest were Japanese, which meant they were eating the comfort foods of home.
Chris went for cooked food on a stick--chicken and prawn (shrimp), Liam and Andy ate sushi, and the three of us shared a bento box full of all sorts of things--more sushi, tempura vegetables, miso soup, unidentified things (some cooked, some prepared). It was interesting. Andy was very proud of himself: he likes being an adventurous eater, but he never had sushi that he enjoyed. Now he knows what fresh, Japanese-prepared sushi is, and he loves it.
Sunday was the coldest day in New South Wales in the past 20 years--and you can see from the photos that some of us wore light jackets and some didn't. We saw many people wearing puffy down jackets, hats, scarves, and gloves. I'm afraid we're not really going to have much winter. They call it winter, but it's not true winter--as we know it in Colorado.
Enjoy the photos!