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There is an Airport Train that departs right from the airport. We boarded at the International Airport Station. The next stop was the Domestic Airport Station. The train was pretty crowded with airport passengers and their luggage when it left the Domestic Airport Station. We only had about 5 stops to go. Central Station is only 3/10th mile from our hotel so we didn't have far to walk from the station to our hotel.
This is a very historic hotel built in the mid 1800s but has been upgraded multiple times. The rooms were of good size and the ammenities were modern, including air conditioning and elevators. The corridors and layout was a bit of a maze which was not uncommon for hotels of the error. We did like that the room and bathroom were of decent size unlike the inexpensive efficiencies like Ibis that we often stay at when we are overseas. The rate was very reasonable at only USD $85 per night including all taxes and fees, including free Wi-Fi, Coffee & tea. We had requested a large bed and it seemed to be a Queen Size bed with night tables on both sides.
The room had plenty of electric outlets everywhere, but it was a good thing I brought along 3 Australian Outlet adapters as those were the only type of outlets in the room. There was one USB outlet near the bed, but each of my Australian Outlet adapters have 2 USB charging ports in addition to 3 U.S. style outlets. All the electrical devices that I travel with can run on anything from 110 to 240 volts and on either 50 or 60 cycles such that I never have to bring along a voltage converter. So, I was fine with the 220 volts provided by the Australian electric outlets.
One pleasant thing about visiting Australia is that the American Dollar goes a long way here. USD $1 converts into about $1.48 Australian Dollars (AUD). So every time we use our charge card to purchase something, it is pleasant to see the charge that ends up on our billing statement is far less than the posted price in Australian Dollars. However, in gerneral prices in AUD seem higher than what you'd pay in America for the same things. So after translating from AUD to USD, you are paying about the same for the same merchandise or services.
With the jet lag from the 15 hour flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, we decided to just take the day off, rest, and get adjusted to the time difference rather than go out touring. At about 5 PM local time we started getting a bit hungry and went down to the bar in our hotel: "The Great Southern Bar." This is a pretty popular bar in the area and gets a lot more business than just from hotel guests.
Our first taste of wine on this Australia journey. I was surprised that it actually wasn't that good considering that Australia is best known for their Shiraz, especially from Barossa. It could be that it is a 2021 vintage wine and hasn't been aged much, though it was a screwcap bottle and wines pretty much don't age in screwcap bottles once they are sealed. Or it could be that it was only a USD $24 bottle of wine, or 2021 was not a good year for wine in Australia, or maybe our taste buds were just a bit off today, or all the above reasons. I've had much better Shiraz wines both in the U.S. and on our previous trips to Australia and hope our future wine tastings are much better than this.
Click on each photo above for a larger image,
or
CLICK HERE
for a slideshow of all the above photos.
If in this report you see any typos, misspellings, factual errors or other types of errors, please let me know.
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