We have discovered the perfect evening picnic spot - only a 5 minute walk away - on Aspen Island in Lake Burley Griffin. We can watch the sun go down over a drink and picnic food and admire life on our beautiful lake.
We even have our favourite, perfectly positioned table on the island, and it's always there for us!!
This courageous couple have a challenging year ahead - so it's extra special to have magic times like this together on beautiful evenings like this.
And it's hard to beat a setting like this ……...
The only distraction on our Aspen Island picnics is the Carillon sounding its bells every quarter hour - and it's LOUD …...
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
We even have our favourite, perfectly positioned table on the island, and it's always there for us!!
This courageous couple have a challenging year ahead - so it's extra special to have magic times like this together on beautiful evenings like this.
And it's hard to beat a setting like this ……...
The only distraction on our Aspen Island picnics is the Carillon sounding its bells every quarter hour - and it's LOUD …...
