Summer Holidays

Here it is Easter Monday and I'm posting about last January - oh well better late than never!

This Summer, I took a trip into Sydney to have a little break with Emily, just like I did last year with Claire.

$109 on lastminute.com got us a mystery hotel at Darling Harbour - which turned out to be The Four Seasons. It is located in a very convenient spot - City side of Darling Harbour and a short walk there as well as up to the Queen Victoria Building (QVB).

Here's our room - not bad for the price!

Emily took to hotel living like a duck to water.

We dumped our bags in the room and headed up to the City. We went to Kinokunya - an amazing bookshop located in The Galeries Victoria opposite the Queen Victoria Building on George Street. They have an incredible range of books in all sorts of different categories. Here's Emily waiting patiently while I investigated the craft book section.
We wandered down to Darling Harbour for dinner. There are various options - some restaurants are expensive but there are lots of inexpensive options too. We decided to eat at Pontoon bar. Because it's a bar, they have a cheap food menu (due to the complexities of NSW licencing laws). Every dish is $10, cooked fresh on the outdoor grill - options include hamburgers, kebabs and fish and chips. It was yummy!

Now normally I wouldn't take my daughter to a bar (!) but this is a gorgeous outdoor setup with lounges and picnic style bench tables with a million dollar view!

We then strolled back towards the hotel, stopping for a gelato too. Back in the room we enjoyed the nice soft bathrobes and put our feet up and watched a bit of cable tv. Here's Em perfecting her bathrobe look!

Next morning we checked out and walked back down to Darling Harbour where we caught the ferry round to Circular Quay. Let me tell you that's about the best thing you can do for about $5 anywhere! From Circular Quay we walked up to The Rocks and had breakfast at Pancakes on The Rocks - neither of us could finish our pancakes - and that's saying something. The Rocks is one of the oldest parts of Sydney with some interesting, free museums featuring the archeological findings from digs around various different sites and theNSW Archives Office at Nurses Walk.

Down near Nurses Walk is a gorgeous button shop right next door to Margo Richards Antiques.

We slowly headed back up George Street to The Strand Arcade.

Emily was particularly taken by Sweet Art

They have amazing cakes

and these very cute pug dog candles.  

I LOVED these chairs in the reception area - very chi chi!

Oh - and one more shot - how gorgeous is this bike in the window of the White Kikki-K shop? Unlike the usual Kikki-K shops this one only carries the stock in white. Getting fit would be easy on a gorgeous bike like this!