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!
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!
They allowed us to check in early so we could dump the bags. A spot of lunch at the MLC Centre (an old stomping ground of mine from my previous high flying corporate life) and then off we went up Martin Place, across Macquarie Street (stopping to rub the nose of the lucky Il Porcino statue outside the Sydney Hospital)
and through the Domain to the NSW Art Gallery to see the Monet exhibition. 
No photos of the actual exhibition - I don't think you were allowed to and I didn't try. The two favourite pictures were two that were posed side by side - one of Rouen Cathedral which was so encrusted with paint and subtle close up that it was difficult to discern what you were actually looking at but increasingly spectacular as you stepped away. The other was an early morning painting of the famous pond in the gardens at Giverny - the brushwork was so smooth - I could imagine that there was an early morning mist on the water. So lovely - his works are just so sublime.
And here's Snowdrop and the seven redcaps
I have no idea who painted this one - but I love it!
We walked back through the Domain and stopped off to admire the State Library (currently undergoing a renovation of it's exterior) and then down to Circular Quay and hopped on a ferry to Darling Harbour 
At Darling Harbour we went to the Lindt Chocolate Cafe and had an Ice Chocolate - this is the chocolate they have in heaven - I'm sure.
After some dinner we caught the Monorail back up to the city and walked back to the hotel. 
...Stopping to admire the Strand - it's so beautiful I promised to take Claire through it the next day. 
Back at the hotel Claire swam in the hotel pool and then we had showers and lay on the beds and watched Foxtel till our eyes fell out of our heads (well actually I pulled rank and said lights out). The next day we went and had breakfast out (Little Miss knocked off a full cooked breakfast thanks very much!) We went back to the Strand and stopped to look in an antique jewellry shop on the ground floor - called Victoria and Albert Jewellers I think. Well the lady there was so lovely to Claire - she sat her up on the stool and treated her as though she was her best ever customer - allowing her to try on the most expensive necklace in the shop - a rather large solid opal heart surrounded by a couple of carats worth of diamonds - and only 12,500 dollars! Here she is trying on an 18k gold hair clip that had diamonds in it. 
We also went past the State Theatre and had a look at it - and walked up to the Queen Victoria Building - but I'll save that for another post because this one is getting too long! But here's a shot of the chocolate shop at the QVB - delish! 