Midweek city visit
My camera battery was on its last legs so only one photo, sorry.
It's school holidays again and our mission is to keep Louka amused. Looking around the internet I found that the Sydney Observatory holds family-friendly tours. In the evening. It seemed like a good idea to stay in the city overnight rather than coming home late. The closest hotel to the Observatory we found was the Langham, It was pretty expensive, but then it was our wedding anniversary, so we booked a night there. Then of course we had to have dinner so Graham searched for deals in the Rocks area and found a seafood restaurant offering a $200 meal for $100.
My parents will be away for a month soon and I thought it would be nice to see them before they went, so we organised lunch at the Governor's Table. And then for some reason Louka asked what a pantomime was, so I googled it for her only to find that Cinderella was being performed at the State Theatre, and of course Louka wanted to see it.
As the day approached, the weather forecast looked less and less appealing - rain, wind. I pondered getting a rain-check on the Observatory tour, but the hotel booking couldn't be cancelled. We decided to go ahead with the whole thing.
We walked to Manly hoping we wouldn't get wet, and fortunately the rain held off except for a minute or so; we put on our raincoats and the rain stopped. On the ferry we chose to sit outside on the front deck, but as we approached the heads a crew member told us we should go inside and stay seated as it was going to be rough. Louka was reluctant but we went inside, and it was rough. Louka was eating a banana and when she'd finished she got up to put the skin in the bin. She hadn't gone a few metres before the ferry lurched over a wave and Louka fell to the floor. Luckily she wasn't hurt and got back to the seat without incident. The deck where we'd been sitting was drenched, the ferry shuddered and thudded down from the tops of waves and I noticed that we took a slightly different route from the usual, angling out to sea to try to meet the swell head-on rather than rolling sideways. Nevertheless the ferry tilted alarmingly before righting itself and tipping over to the other side. Soon we passed the head, though, and it was a smooth ride the rest of the way.
We had a pleasant meal with my parents then made our way to the hotel for a swim. The pool looked very glamorous in the picture on the web and Graham always likes to try out hotel pools. The pool receptionist was going to charge us $55 each for a casual visit until we thought to explain we were staying at the hotel, then we got in for free. It was a lovely pool, cool at first but soon just the right temperature. The water was not too chlorinated. The ceiling was deep blue scattered with little lights like stars, and there were lights just under the water that made our splashes sparkle. On the far side was a very warm and spacious spa. In the change rooms were towels, bathrobes, slippers, hot showers with shampoo and conditioner, and a water extractor for swimwear. There were not many other people using the pool. We had a great time.
When we went out again to the Observatory it was dark and wet and the walk was not appealing. I was glad we'd chosen a hotel so close by - we just crossed the road and walked up the hill and we were there. We climbed the stairs to the first telescope, an attractive old brass 12-inch one. The tour guide made the roof turn as we climbed the stairs, making us feel that we were on a revolving staircase. He showed us how the telescope could be pointed at any object then set to follow its path around the sky. It was obviously impossible to see any astronomical objects so the guide pointed the telescope at the Balmain Town Hall clock, but even that was not to be found.
The second tower contained a modern 16-inch telescope and here we were more fortunate and were able to see the red light on the top of the Harbour Bridge.
The 3D theatre was only working in 2D but that didn't much affect the movie we saw, which showed the relative sizes of the moon, planets, sun and larger stars. Then we went into the planetarium. The tour guide sent time backwards to the current time from the middle of the following day, and the sky darkened and filled with stars and the Milky Way. He showed us the constellations and told us stories about them. It was 7:30 when we finished and we still had questions we would have liked to ask.
It was still raining as we made our way to the Rocks to the Waterside Restaurant. The meal was ample and pleasant but we didn't feel it was worth $200.
Our hotel room had only one bed, but it was a super king size and we were comfortable in it for the night. We couldn't figure out the purpose of the bath-mat-sized squares of sheeting on the floor on either side of the bed, but we enjoyed the general sense of luxury,
In the morning Graham made coffee in the capsule-style coffee machine. We found that a short black sized coffee was nearly as strong as we make our coffee, and the flavour was better than from other coffee capsules we'd tried. Then, instead of having the rather expensive breakfast provided by the hotel, we went out to Pancakes on the Rocks. Then back for another swim before checking out.
Louka had enjoyed kids' holiday activities at the MCA on previous occasions so we went there and looked at the exhibitions (the exhibition "New Romance - art and the posthuman" was full of strange objects that, in Louka's words, looked like aliens had been experimenting with humans and had got carried away) then went to the kids activity room to make a creature out of paper cups, newspaper, stickers and long strips of silver paper.
It was a long wet walk from Circular Quay to the State Theatre and when we arrived there was already a queue to get in. We showed our tickets then checked my bag and Louka's craft creature into the cloak room. Louka wanted popcorn and I got a packet of crisps before finding our seats. Louka was impressed with how ornate the theatre was. The stage was decorated with sparkling lights and soon the lights dimmed and the show started. The audience was coached in booing and other interactions, the costumes were over the top, the songs were familiar, the jokes were topical. Louka said it was her favourite part of the whole outing.
It's school holidays again and our mission is to keep Louka amused. Looking around the internet I found that the Sydney Observatory holds family-friendly tours. In the evening. It seemed like a good idea to stay in the city overnight rather than coming home late. The closest hotel to the Observatory we found was the Langham, It was pretty expensive, but then it was our wedding anniversary, so we booked a night there. Then of course we had to have dinner so Graham searched for deals in the Rocks area and found a seafood restaurant offering a $200 meal for $100.
My parents will be away for a month soon and I thought it would be nice to see them before they went, so we organised lunch at the Governor's Table. And then for some reason Louka asked what a pantomime was, so I googled it for her only to find that Cinderella was being performed at the State Theatre, and of course Louka wanted to see it.
As the day approached, the weather forecast looked less and less appealing - rain, wind. I pondered getting a rain-check on the Observatory tour, but the hotel booking couldn't be cancelled. We decided to go ahead with the whole thing.
We walked to Manly hoping we wouldn't get wet, and fortunately the rain held off except for a minute or so; we put on our raincoats and the rain stopped. On the ferry we chose to sit outside on the front deck, but as we approached the heads a crew member told us we should go inside and stay seated as it was going to be rough. Louka was reluctant but we went inside, and it was rough. Louka was eating a banana and when she'd finished she got up to put the skin in the bin. She hadn't gone a few metres before the ferry lurched over a wave and Louka fell to the floor. Luckily she wasn't hurt and got back to the seat without incident. The deck where we'd been sitting was drenched, the ferry shuddered and thudded down from the tops of waves and I noticed that we took a slightly different route from the usual, angling out to sea to try to meet the swell head-on rather than rolling sideways. Nevertheless the ferry tilted alarmingly before righting itself and tipping over to the other side. Soon we passed the head, though, and it was a smooth ride the rest of the way.
We had a pleasant meal with my parents then made our way to the hotel for a swim. The pool looked very glamorous in the picture on the web and Graham always likes to try out hotel pools. The pool receptionist was going to charge us $55 each for a casual visit until we thought to explain we were staying at the hotel, then we got in for free. It was a lovely pool, cool at first but soon just the right temperature. The water was not too chlorinated. The ceiling was deep blue scattered with little lights like stars, and there were lights just under the water that made our splashes sparkle. On the far side was a very warm and spacious spa. In the change rooms were towels, bathrobes, slippers, hot showers with shampoo and conditioner, and a water extractor for swimwear. There were not many other people using the pool. We had a great time.
When we went out again to the Observatory it was dark and wet and the walk was not appealing. I was glad we'd chosen a hotel so close by - we just crossed the road and walked up the hill and we were there. We climbed the stairs to the first telescope, an attractive old brass 12-inch one. The tour guide made the roof turn as we climbed the stairs, making us feel that we were on a revolving staircase. He showed us how the telescope could be pointed at any object then set to follow its path around the sky. It was obviously impossible to see any astronomical objects so the guide pointed the telescope at the Balmain Town Hall clock, but even that was not to be found.
The second tower contained a modern 16-inch telescope and here we were more fortunate and were able to see the red light on the top of the Harbour Bridge.
The 3D theatre was only working in 2D but that didn't much affect the movie we saw, which showed the relative sizes of the moon, planets, sun and larger stars. Then we went into the planetarium. The tour guide sent time backwards to the current time from the middle of the following day, and the sky darkened and filled with stars and the Milky Way. He showed us the constellations and told us stories about them. It was 7:30 when we finished and we still had questions we would have liked to ask.
It was still raining as we made our way to the Rocks to the Waterside Restaurant. The meal was ample and pleasant but we didn't feel it was worth $200.
Our hotel room had only one bed, but it was a super king size and we were comfortable in it for the night. We couldn't figure out the purpose of the bath-mat-sized squares of sheeting on the floor on either side of the bed, but we enjoyed the general sense of luxury,
In the morning Graham made coffee in the capsule-style coffee machine. We found that a short black sized coffee was nearly as strong as we make our coffee, and the flavour was better than from other coffee capsules we'd tried. Then, instead of having the rather expensive breakfast provided by the hotel, we went out to Pancakes on the Rocks. Then back for another swim before checking out.
Louka had enjoyed kids' holiday activities at the MCA on previous occasions so we went there and looked at the exhibitions (the exhibition "New Romance - art and the posthuman" was full of strange objects that, in Louka's words, looked like aliens had been experimenting with humans and had got carried away) then went to the kids activity room to make a creature out of paper cups, newspaper, stickers and long strips of silver paper.
It was a long wet walk from Circular Quay to the State Theatre and when we arrived there was already a queue to get in. We showed our tickets then checked my bag and Louka's craft creature into the cloak room. Louka wanted popcorn and I got a packet of crisps before finding our seats. Louka was impressed with how ornate the theatre was. The stage was decorated with sparkling lights and soon the lights dimmed and the show started. The audience was coached in booing and other interactions, the costumes were over the top, the songs were familiar, the jokes were topical. Louka said it was her favourite part of the whole outing.
posted by Liz + Louka at 2:08 pm
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