The only time we can visit Sydney is on weekends as we are committed to looking after the little dog at our house sit during the week.
Bilpin is about 2 hours out of Sydney and the drive manageable out of peak traffic hours. It takes a while getting used to Sydney traffic, the motorways and toll roads!!
We made our way straight to Lilyfield -an inner city suburb- where our friends, Felicity and Brian, now live. As Brian said, they have gone from the sublime (acres and acres of land in Bellingen) to the ridiculous (a tiny block of land with on street parking in Sydney) . We loved both - the sublime and the ridiculous!
Felicity and I walked all over the place spotting the cutest homes, gardens - and the viaduct - while Brian and Chris spent time around the dining room table chatting about music and very fast, exotic cars!!! Felicity, unknowingly, bought Brian a CD which contained the engine sounds of these cars....and now I will have to negotiate the Nullabor with the engine roars of Bugatis, Ferraris and the like!!! Oh Felicity, what have you done??
We went walking along the edge of one of the bays near their home, drove over the Harbour Bridge and marvelled at Anzac Bridge. In the evening, the night of my birthday, Felicity found a most interesting Malaysian/Indian restaurant in King St where we had a great meal served by the nicest people. On Sunday morning we met Ian, Felicity and Brian's son, and 2 of his 3 little boys. Ian and Natalie had played together about 36 years ago!
It was a wonderful weekend and we are looking forward to being able to spoil Felicity and Brian when they make a trip to the west next year.
We will have to make some more time to explore Sydney. I don't think negotiating the caravan through the city would be a good idea. It would take courage. It's a BUSY, BUSY city. There can be much gnashing of teeth and swearing at Mrs Navlady. Luckily she has VERY big shoulders and a VERY thick skin...in fact, I am sure she is stone deaf!! (We tried to get to the Opera House but never managed. We ended up in the Lane Cove tunnel!)
