Bennelong dinner

We were able to fit in a visit to the wonderful Masters of Modern Art from the Hermitage exhibition at the AGNSW yesterday. Focussing on French artists of the decade 1900-1910 this relatively small exhibition had plenty of beautiful Monets, Mattisses, Cezannes,  Kandinskys and Picassos  to please everyone. 

 But the main reason we'd come to Sydney was for our Sunday dinner date with our dear friends David and Irene  at the fabulous Bennelong Restaurant at the Sydney Opera House. We've waited a long time for this with all the "issues" this year.... but at last we've made it!

We'd booked into the beautiful Intercontinental Hotel on Macquarie Street - a short walk to the Quay (and Bennelong) - but a beautiful and historic property in its own right!

 But the star of the show was last night's dinner at Bennelong - in our country's most iconic building with its stunning harbourside location. 

We were so lucky tonight not to have one of those ginormous cruise ships backed up to the overseas terminal - blocking our sunset view.

 The food was beautiful of course - Princess Charlotte Bay bug dumplings, confit of Maremma duck (in the front of pic below) for me, and an array of shared desserts to finish off...…. perfect!!

 After a wonderful and memorable night at Bennelong it was a windy walk back along the Quay and then up these 150 odd year old stairs to our lovely hotel in Macquarie Street.

 We had to finish off the night with a ride in our hotel's oldest lift in Australia - it only spans 3 levels but makes up for its limitations with old world character in spades (a bit like us really!).

Our rooms may not have been on the hotel's "best" side but it is always good to catch a glimpse of Sydney's stunning harbour no matter how small a glimpse it is.

 We started today with a walk and a bit of a stair work out - and a view of this (below)! It's just as well we'd got moving as our hotel breakfast proved to be  too difficult to resist - even with our indulgence last night. Sydney is such a stunner - especially when long anticipated treats like this are shared with friends