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3 February,2014
Decided to catch the early train to Sydney airport, to give us time to spare, so alarm set for 4.30am. Restless night (excitement? – or I rarely trust the alarm to work). Alarm did work, so up and showered, a quick tea and toast for breakfast and we are off to the railway station.
Train to Sydney was on time, smooth trip and a chance to read the paper and do the crossword, plus have a catnap! Arrived at Central Railway with loads of time to change over to the suburban platforms for the train to the domestic airport. After check in, and with only cabin luggage to contend with, it was time to choose food for breakfast. Cruising around the food area is overwhelming with the choices offered (really don’t like take-away food!), but some salad wraps looked inviting and washed down with a skim flat white, I was starting to feel good!
The only tiny hitch was that the flight was delayed due to an earlier flight coming in late, and we needed to change the entry gate. Minor upset. Then time to board, squeeze into our seats (they could not be made any smaller!) and we were up, up and away. I’m sure I slept for most of the 2.5 hour flight, because we were descending before I knew it – and then we were landing in Tasmania – the first time I have stepped foot on this beautiful island state.
Of course nothing ever goes 100% smoothly with travel, and we had a short wait to hire the car we had ordered. The GPS was not included when we ordered online, but this was soon made available. Even found the car easily! However when we unpacked the GPS from its container, the frame to attach it to the windscreen was missing. Back to the Thrifty Rental desk, where the assistant found a frame to fit and we were on our way. The GPS guided us effortlessly to our accommodation (more on the GPS later!) and we were soon settled in.
Woolmers Apartments (image at left) is situated on Sandy Bay Road, Sandy Bay and is only a 10-minute walk from Salamanca Place and the Information Centre, so we walked to the Centre to book a gourmet tour to Bruny Island during our 5-day stay, to gather some interesting brochures and maps, and I purchased a book (when am I going to find time to read a book!) by journalists Michael Tatlow and Charles Wooley and historian Peter Mercer, “A Tour of Old Tasmania”.
The skies had clouded over, and by the time we started the walk back it was raining lightly, getting a little heavier the further we went, and a brisk wind came up. I had my folding umbrella, which I had not used for a long time, however the wind was too much for the poor thing, and although it struggled to keep me as dry as possible until we got back to Woolmers, it then turned itself inside out and died – and I buried it in the garbage container!
Not far from the Apartments on Sandy Bay Road is a small shopping centre, with some good restaurants. This night we chose to go to METZ, a casual restaurant with a large outdoor eating area (unfortunately not tonight as it was still cool with spots of rain), and the meal (Vegetarian Pasta and Pizza) went down extremely well, with a glass of Shiraz.
Tomorrow we plan to explore Hobart – please join us!
Irish Murphy’s Hotel in Salamanca Place
Contrasting the modern apartments with the heritage buildings off Salamanca Place
