The Luggage

After gorging ourselves in the pub that night, we retired for our last night in the apartment.

For tomorrow we were going down to Newtown to see Julie and Gary and their sproglets Jarrah and Geneve.

This left us with some interesting conundrums logistically, around luggage.

We weren't due in Newtown until the afternoon, and checkout time was 10.00am. So the luggage had to be left at the hotel while we went seeking breakfast and presents.

We didn't have a particular idea of where we were going, so we thought we'd go the the coffee shop we'd ridden out the rain in for a spot of breakfast.

No ponchos today, the sun was actually coming out!

No breakfast either though, the coffee shop was closed.

So we struck off in a random direction and ended up at a place called Paddy's Market where we managed to kill all birds with one stone.

Downstairs, covered industrial markets, more stalls than you could shake a stick at, presents sorted.

Upstairs, shopping centre, food court, breakfast procured.

Rather than walk all the way home, Eloise suggested that she'd been promised a ride on the monorail, and so it came to pass that we rode the monorail around Darling Harbour, across the Pyrmont Bridge and back to the Convention Centre.

Baggage reclaimed, we headed off to find a train. On foot.

Which in retrospect was a miserly move which may have been counterproductive, as there were many bags, and not many feet, and some distance to go to the nearest station.

So somewhat tired as we got our tickets and traveled to our platform, to find it closed.

And increasingly confused as we struggled to work out where we needed to be to get to Central Station where we would change trains.

But got there eventually we did, then further confusion with platforms there, which were closed also, except Central has literally tens of platforms, so slightly more challenging. And Eloise lost her ticket. Hmmm.

Eventually we got out to Newtown and started tramping down King Street in the general direction of Julie and Gary's house.

I knew I should have written down their address.