12th December - 28th December Melbourne to Sydney (and a family Xmas)

I left Adelaide on the "Overlander" train.  This was a shorter journey than last time of a scheduled 7-8 hours.  This was interrupted by a breakdown which left us stranded for 2 hours.  I got chatting to a nice lady Patricia Warner Freeland, and we had a good giggle and she told me lots of interesting stories from her life and running her own restaurant.  We got on well and when we arrived I helped Pat with her bags until she met her son.

I was pleasantly greeted at the Station by an old face Claire Colvin, and her boyfriend Kon (Konstantinos Georiadis).  They guided me to the local YHA where I was staying and then we quickly headed out for a couple of quiet drinks.  They showed me the Crown Casino, and some of the bars.  We sat out on a terrace and felt like a furnace was next to us as the chimney stacks fired up on the hour!!  Heading further on down the riverside we had a bit to eat and then to the Irish bar where the tunes were banging out one after another.  Before we knew it it was 2am so we trooped off in our different directions.  The following day we met for breakfast and Claire took me for a tour of the city and St. Kilda.  I think the highlight for Claire was the trip to the fairy cake shop, where we bought an unmentionable number, and consumed them pretty much straight away.

A couple of day later Mum and Dad arrived as we are having a family Christmas. Our Paul and his fiance Jane are coming out closer to Christmas and will be getting married in Sydney.

We set off on a little road trip to Sydney along the Great Alpine Road.  This was a fantastic journey and took in a number of pretty towns.  The road goes through some high places, as Alpine would suggest.  When we arrived in Albury we switched on the TV and watched the local news reporting that the road we had just been on had been closed due to snow.  All the stranger as this was close to their summer time and that we had just finished the road in a lovely sunny day.  The kids were making snow men on the report - although there was not enough snow for skiing!!!

Canberra was an interesting stop as it was the capital, and visited the Parliament building.  The architect built the building with a roof that people can walk across - it even has grass.  The idea of this is that the people should always be masters of the Parliament so the general public should also be able masters (above) the parliament.  The war memorial was an impressive building and had one of the best museums I have been too (I have been clocking up quite a lot of visits to museums so far).  At closing time the bugler played the last stand.

On the 22nd we arrived in Wollongong.  We settled in for a Merry Xmas, and picked Paul and Jane up from the airport.  Xmas day was spent on the beach, and a Xmas dinner of BBQ.  Everything was done in a typical Ozzie experience style.  I had a lovely surprise as Jane and Paul had brought some cards from Denise which put a big smile on my face.

I decided to confront my fears when I rang up and booked a trip to walk up the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  Really not sure that was such a wise idea on reflection...... gulp!!!!!!