Weekend in Sydney =)

Saturday we booked ourselves in at the Sheraton on the Park in Sydney where we both booked a massage at their health spa for one another. Mine was a Christmas gift and I thought it would be nice to give Caroline the same as a birthday gift and have it together. Because our anniversary is coming up on the 4th we also thought it might be nice to book a room there for the night. And because I wasn't feeling well on Caroline's birthday (food poisoning) we decided to have a nice meal on another day. With all of the above going on this seemed a good moment to treat ourselves some more and go to the Summit a revolving restaurant, located on the 47th floor.

The room in the Sheraton was wonderful, overlooking Hyde Park, and the bathroom with its black marble floor and paintings on the walls made us feel like royalty. If we do ever hit the jackpot Caroline and I might move in. Prior to the massage we went for a swim in the infinity pool on the 22nd floor with nice views all around. I had never had a massage before and wasn't sure what to expect. It was really nice and we just felt like taking a nap after, it was nice that we had a room to retreat too before getting ready to go out again.

The dinner at the Summit was excellent and with a table at the window we had great views over Sydney.

Sunday we slept in longer than we intended, probably because of the dark curtains, but we managed to get down before they stopped serving breakfast. After putting our luggage in storage we had a nice walk through the Botanical Gardens.

Blue Triangle Butterfly, Sulphur-crested Cockatoos
Stairways to...?

We always knew from previous visits that there are Grey-Headed Flying Foxes in the Gardens but it seemed like the colony had grown quite a lot since our last visit. The thing about Flying Foxes is you usually smell them before you see them and maybe because their numbers have grown so much, now you had to watch out not to step in their droppings either. They were also particularly noisy (go here for a recording). Besides that, it is great to see these 'weird' animals thriving in a big city like Sydney.

Flying foxes everywhere.
The first photo resembles a Christmas tree with Flying Foxes for baubles.

Later we found out prior to us going we had booked everything coinciding with 30 years of Mardi Gras which we both would have liked to see, but at least we have the liberty now of saying we'll go and see it next year instead.