We woke up to see a beautiful view out of our window:
After breakfast, we headed out for a hike. We walked about 10 minutes from the hotel to Echo Point lookout, where we could see the famous Three Sisters. Here I am posing with them (they are somewhat more cooperative in photos than my own Three Brothers but not nearly as much fun or as lovable!)
From Echo Point, we walked about 15 minutes to the top of the Great Staircase. While we were smart enough to plan only to walk one way (down) after hearing the name, we didn't do very much due diligence before starting out. Therefore, it was quite a bit more strenuous than we expected - 900 steps! Yes, 900 steps - and these were no front hall steps; they were along the side of the mountain, very uneven, some made of metal and see-through (down 500+ feet). Hmm....
When we got to the bottom (finally!), we embarked on the 2.5km hike to the cable car that would take us back up to the top. There was a lot of beautiful scenery during the walk
At the end of the hike, we made it to the cable car, which took us up to another scenic lookout. From there, we took the 'sky car' across to the other side of the mountain (back where we had started) - this also provided for some good pictures and views.
When we reached the other side - well, we still had more hiking ahead of us.
We continued along the way, probably another 25 minutes and happily thought we were nearing the end when - surprise! Remember the 900 steps down? Even with the hiking and the cable car and the sky car - well, there were another 200 steps up! Yippee! Needless to say, we were very pleased to reach the top and get back to the hotel. All in all, it was about a 3 hour hike and we estimated probably 5-6km.
After cleaning up, we headed out to the town of Katoomba to take a look around and get some lunch. Here is a picture of Craig in our rental car ('The Green Machine')
We walked a bit around town and had some much needed lunch. Afterwards, we drove a bit around the neighboring areas - first stopping at the Blue Mountains Chocolate Shop and then heading to the town of Leura. Leura is a very cute little town, probably one of the nicest ones in the Blue Mountains. We stopped in a couple stores and used A LOT of self restraint at The Candy Shop (puts Economy Candy to shame with selection and variety although about 1/4 of the physical size). We then decided that we hadn't hiked quiet enough for the day, so we headed to Scenic Point for some more views of the Blue Mountains (actually, this was only about a 20-25 minute hike round-trip)
After a bit of rest at the hotel, we headed out for dinner about 15 minutes away to a restaurant called Ashcrofts. Craig had read about this restaurant and it had been written up a number of times as one of the best restaurants in the area. It did not disappoint! One of the highlights was their signature dessert (the one in front of me) which is a vanilla custard with spun toffee on top. When it came out, it was probably about 18 inches tall! We had no problem figuring out how to eat it though
On Sunday morning, after leaving the hotel, we drove over to the Megalong Valley, stopping in a few places along the way
We then had lunch at another restaurant that we had read of - Vulcans - which Craig had read had been voted the best restaurant in the Blue Mountains. Again, another delicious meal! No one can say that we haven't eaten our way through this country!!
After lunch, we got back in the Green Machine and headed for Sydney where we returned to the Park Hyatt - the first place we stayed in Australia. Once again, we have an amazing view out of our window:
We immediately headed out for The Rocks weekend market which we had enjoyed on our first visit and stocked up on licorice (and a few other treats). After returning our rental car, we relaxed at the hotel and Craig took a swim in the rooftop pool.
We are about to head out for dinner at Quay which is right across from the hotel and looks out on Circular Quay - luckily there are no cruise ships blocking the view!
It's incredibly hard to believe that this is our last night in Australia - the last 3 1/2 weeks have just flown by. What an amazing trip! Craig did a wonderful (perfect!) job planning everything. We are looking forward to one more morning in Sydney and then we head to the airport. If we don't post again before that, we will write more and put up more pictures once we get home
1 comment:
i know mom and dad saw fool's gold. that probably made this whole blog experience even more rich for them. see you soon!
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