Sydney Roadtrip

This post is a quickie photo essay!  We're still catching up on things after our roadtrip, and Mr P. has been very unwell with this awful cold and cough that lingers and lingers ...  Lots of bugs going around at the moment, apparently.  We think he caught it from being in so many hospital waiting rooms lately.

Mr P. organised our recent Sydney trip, heading down south to visit an old friend, and to hit as many art galleries as we could.  Was it eight or nine we managed?  Job well done, as the English say!  And it was wonderful to catch up with our old mate Jim, whom we have known since we were knee-high to a grasshopper, as the saying goes.

NERAM  (horse sculpture by Tim Storrier)

First off, we hit NERAM - the New England Regional Art Museum.  We try to get here once a year; it's about 5 or 6 hours drive from us, so we take a roadtrip!  And if you're lucky, you get to see some snow here in Winter.  Clearly, not now :=)  

driving over the Sydney Harbour Bridge - a few times!

a cute twiggy fella on top of someone's chimney

massive sculpture by Ron Mueck (Art Gallery of NSW)

Ron Mueck does amazing work.  These huge sculptures are very confronting, and fascinating.  I'm hiding the mmm extra-large appendages - hehehe ...

there were carrot pancakes for Mr P. at Archie's Café Co, Dover Heights

there were koi carp at the Gosford Regional Gallery, and Japanese Garden

Mr P. ate fried halloumi and scrambled eggs at The Point cafe, Avoca Beach

we admired a Brett Whiteley sculpture at the newly re-opened Newcastle Art Gallery

we had a gander at Smoky Bay Lighthouse

(By the architect James Barnet Colonial Architect for NSW, 1865-1890.)  He designed various public buildings and a number of lighthouses around New South Wales, including this one.  I love a lighthouse, my friends!  I'm thinking of joining the Lighthouse Society.  

and said hi to a wallaby having his/her lunch

We checked out the Trial Bay Gaol ruins; a "nice" prison, apparently

I ate Bircher muesli at the Hilltop Store

we drove to a sea view at Sawtell, looking north

and captured ourselves in the outdoor Sculpture Garden at the Grafton Regional Gallery

We shared a Black Forest croissant at the Ulmarra Food Co-op

and admired the water dragon in the leafy front courtyard

What a trip!  And probably our last for a while, till Mr P.'s treatments finish.  There are so many wonderful things to see in our big country.  If you can get here, my friends ...