Day 4 - Margaret and Steve

Today would mark a kind of transition for us on this trip. Up until now, we had been on our own, roaming around Sydney. But today, one set of the friends we made on our 2016 European tour would come into town and pick us up. So, the day started with the re-packing of suitcases that will become common place by the time we head back home. It's funny that you can be so careful putting stuff in your bag when you leave home, but when you try and put it all back in after a few days, it seems that there is more stuff. I'm convinced dirty clothes get bigger.

Once we had completed getting our items re-stowed, we went out for a quick breakfast at a nearby location. Not too many places are open on a Sunday in Downtown Sydney, however Cafe Portico which was just around the corner from our hotel, was serving coffee and breakfast. You know that place is good when all of the outside tables are taken. We each had a coffee and some food before heading back to the hotel to check out.

Bar Bellaccino

One last look around, checking the safe to make sure we did not forget anything (see our Africa Blog for the time we forgot our passports, cash and some other items in a London hotel), and then headed down to the lobby to check out. Once we had turned in our cards, we found a place to sit in the hotel lobby as Steve and Margaret were on their way. 

A lady sat down net to me and then struck up a conversation with another lady who was clearly her friend. Since they were so close to me, I could hear the conversation and was able to pick up on the fact that she was heading home after a Pretty long trip. She talked about her flight to Vancouver and I thought, "Oh, a fellow Canadian". Then I heard her mention that she had a 4 hour layover there before her flight to...you guessed it...Edmonton. I leaned over and said, "You are from Edmonton?".  She replied, yes. To which I replied, "So are we".  we had a good laugh over the fact that two Edmontonian's would be sitting beside each other in a Sydney hotel lobby. It truly is a small world.

Steve and Margaret were having some difficulties navigating to our hotel given the amount of construction that was going on in the Sydney area. So they parked a few blocks away and walked to the hotel.  It was a fantastic reunion.  They looked exactly as we remembered them from 2016, nearly nine years ago. 

We took our suitcases to their vehicle, locked them in the back and the proceeded to go down to the waterfront.  Steve and Margaret had not been in town for a long time and they were noting how many things had changed.  We wandered around down there for a while and decided to find a restaurant to have a lite lunch. There was a place that they had gone to a few times before that we eventually found and where we shared a Pizza and some desserts. We made our way back to their vehicle and then proceeded to their house which is just North and West of Richmond, Australia.

We stopped in town to pick up a sharpie and some ziplock snack bags so that I could transfer my Manly and Bondi beach sand to something a little more secure.  The Bondi sand was in two small plastic bags, the ones we use for our vitamins when we travel.  The ziplock feature on them is not very good, and I had a bunch of the Bondi sand leak out in my MEC Shoulder bag. The marker is so that I can properly mark the bags. I know it's a little crazy, but I like to bring a small portion of sand from the various beaches that I've visited around the world. Once back at home, I put them in these clear jars that I picked up from IKEA and put a label on the jar so I can remember where each collection of sand, came from. 

After that it was off to their beautifully, recently renovated home on 2 acres of land, just outside of Richmond. We settled in and then sat in the front room and chatted for a while, as a Footie game was going on.  Both Steve and Margaret were helping explain the rules as the game went on.  I'm sure they were getting tired of me asking, "What just happened?", or "Why did they do that?". But after a while I started to get the hang of it.

Dinner was a fantastic Cannelloni with home made ricotta cheese. Needless to say, it was amazing! 

We then went back to the TV area and watched a Camino show called, "The Way, My Way" on Netflix. They had watched it remembering that I had walked a portion of the Camino so they could see what it was like.  We watched it again, and it was interesting to see some scenery that was familiar to me from my walk.

After this we all decided to get some rest (except for the blogger), so that we were ready for our trip to the Blue Mountains tomorrow. I'm sure I'll have more photos than from today.  

Curt & Laureen, just outside of Richmond, Australia.