A Nap, a Soak, and Dinner
Dec. 25th, 2023 12:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerAustralia Travelog #5
Back at the hotel - Sun, 24 Dec 2023, 6:30pm
Our room was finally ready today around 1:30pm. I say finally because it had already been a long day for us. Not only were we up most of the night on a long flight from San Francisco to Sydney but we started our (second) day upon landing at 6am. We were at the hotel before 7:30 and started our walking tour just before 9am. By 1:30pm we had already walked almost 8 miles. And it had started to rain... heavily.
Getting our room was a relief. It wasn't quite all that we expected, though. The front desk agent had told us hours earlier that part of the reason we had to wait so long for our room was because it was an "upgrade". Well, a corner room, two steps above the basic room, is what I booked. This was... an executive... corner room.
"What does that mean?" I asked the agent. "It's larger," she answered immediately. Looking at the room in the photo above I don't see how it's much larger than, say, a broom closet. There's no "larger" here unless the basic rooms are so small you bang your knees on the furniture walking around to the far side of the bed.
Which meant it was on a higher floor. I've got to tell you, we frequent travelers with elite status at hotel chains kind of hate it when hotels proudly tell us that putting us in the same room but on a higher floor is an elite upgrade. Especially this case when I had to wait hours for it. But in this case I was too ready to strip off and lie down to argue about it.
We stretched out on the bed, intended just to rest our legs, and ended up napping for almost an hour.
I don't fault us for this because, again, we'd already walked 8 miles by lunchtime.
Later in the afternoon we decided to check out the swimming pool. Yes, they have a hot tub!
The water wasn't exactly hot, more like bathtub-warm, but with the jets going it was enjoyable. I left feel a lot more relaxed than when I entered.
The soak in the hot tub took up a bit more time than I expected. I think we were in there for almost an hour! Afterward we toweled off, changed back into our clothes, and visited the executive lounge to see what was on offer for dinner. It looked... meager... especially for Hawk's tastes, so we headed out to a restaurant that had been suggested by one of the hotel staffers in the morning.
The restaurant was a very tourist-trappy place over at Darling Harbor, less than 1 km away, but it got the job done. And it was only a short walk there and back, even with us making a side trip to walk the foot bridge across to the other side of the harbor and back.
One advantage of going out for an early dinner was that we got back before the club lounge closed at 7. We tried a bit of dessert there, and I knocked back a gin and tonic and a bourbon. Well, part of a bourbon. I brought the rest back to my room and now I'm not sure I'm going to finish it before we both fall asleep. Yes, it's 7pm and we're ready to bed... but it's already been a full day on scant in-flight sleep last night.
Back at the hotel - Sun, 24 Dec 2023, 6:30pm
Our room was finally ready today around 1:30pm. I say finally because it had already been a long day for us. Not only were we up most of the night on a long flight from San Francisco to Sydney but we started our (second) day upon landing at 6am. We were at the hotel before 7:30 and started our walking tour just before 9am. By 1:30pm we had already walked almost 8 miles. And it had started to rain... heavily.
Getting our room was a relief. It wasn't quite all that we expected, though. The front desk agent had told us hours earlier that part of the reason we had to wait so long for our room was because it was an "upgrade". Well, a corner room, two steps above the basic room, is what I booked. This was... an executive... corner room.
"What does that mean?" I asked the agent. "It's larger," she answered immediately. Looking at the room in the photo above I don't see how it's much larger than, say, a broom closet. There's no "larger" here unless the basic rooms are so small you bang your knees on the furniture walking around to the far side of the bed.
Which meant it was on a higher floor. I've got to tell you, we frequent travelers with elite status at hotel chains kind of hate it when hotels proudly tell us that putting us in the same room but on a higher floor is an elite upgrade. Especially this case when I had to wait hours for it. But in this case I was too ready to strip off and lie down to argue about it.
We stretched out on the bed, intended just to rest our legs, and ended up napping for almost an hour.
I don't fault us for this because, again, we'd already walked 8 miles by lunchtime.
Later in the afternoon we decided to check out the swimming pool. Yes, they have a hot tub!
The water wasn't exactly hot, more like bathtub-warm, but with the jets going it was enjoyable. I left feel a lot more relaxed than when I entered.
The soak in the hot tub took up a bit more time than I expected. I think we were in there for almost an hour! Afterward we toweled off, changed back into our clothes, and visited the executive lounge to see what was on offer for dinner. It looked... meager... especially for Hawk's tastes, so we headed out to a restaurant that had been suggested by one of the hotel staffers in the morning.
The restaurant was a very tourist-trappy place over at Darling Harbor, less than 1 km away, but it got the job done. And it was only a short walk there and back, even with us making a side trip to walk the foot bridge across to the other side of the harbor and back.
One advantage of going out for an early dinner was that we got back before the club lounge closed at 7. We tried a bit of dessert there, and I knocked back a gin and tonic and a bourbon. Well, part of a bourbon. I brought the rest back to my room and now I'm not sure I'm going to finish it before we both fall asleep. Yes, it's 7pm and we're ready to bed... but it's already been a full day on scant in-flight sleep last night.
