Blogs from Olympic Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

Travelling to Sydney for a conference has bought us to the Novatel Sydney Olympic Park a 4 ½ star hotel in the heart of the Sydney Olympic Park. After the first night we can easily say that it is a comfortable hotel with friendly staff and a good venue for a conference. The venue is out of town someway and has a number of restaurants and eateries in its immediate vicinity. Our room along with a number on our floor has the most amazing curtains that would be at home in an episode of “Dexter”. A lovely evening was had with friends on our first night but we have discovered that the drinks are priced in the upper end of the market and the evening meal in the restaurant was lovely though again not very price ... read more

".......if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right?" -Dorothy Gale Wizard of Oz Eighty Days around the world was the brain wave at the start of this Tour or was it 80lb no thats the book title. Anyway so where did this voyage of discover get us ? This mid life crisis as some termed it where did it deliver us. Watching Everon on Tour and missing the only goal of the game as Philip has drunk to much(very easy as he doesnt drink these days). So the more things change the more they stay the same. so add it to the list of missed pre season goals ... read more

Servus, Gestern waren wir auf der RTA-Stelle um den Misserfolg bei der DIAC zu vergessen. Anschließend noch etwas einkaufen gewesen und am Abend dann zum ersten mal seit Deutschland so richtig schwimmen gewesen. Also so mit Bahnen ziehen und Chlor und so Zeug, ihr wisst schon. Unsere Vermieterin die eine Mitgliedschaft im Olympic Park Aquatic Centre hat war so nett und hat uns mitgenommen. War was ganz anderes mit dem Auto zu fahren anstatt immer mit dem Zug und Bus durch die Gegend zu tuckern! Das schwimmen hat mir sehr gut getan. Lena fands auch sehr schön nur tut ihr jetzt alles weh -_- Völlig geschafft vom schwimmen sind wir dann auch schnell eingeschlafen und haben uns auf den nächsten Tag gefreut. Heute war es soweit. Nach dem es gestern so füüüürchterlich bis zum frühen Mittag ... read more

As it is now Monday in North America, we can finally make some calls to try and deal with our situation. We reach the insurance company in Toronto and find that they will cover us to go to Hanoi instead of Bangkok, but that we need to try to make the arrangements through our ticket broker. We then call San Francisco and speak with Air Brokers International. They say that we are better off using an agent in Australia instead and they give us some names. Once again we head off to visit a travel agent. We haven't done much touristy stuff in a few days, though we have seen a lot of the city through our travels. This agent is on Pitt street, not far from the Thai Airways office so the route is familiar. ... read more

We haven't yet booked for Sydney, so I make a few calls. Being so close to the weekend, most of our usual choices are already booked but we manage to find a holiday park in the Bass Hill part of Sydney. They are relatively close to a train station which is good as we will be getting rid of the car on Saturday. The drive to Sydney takes quite some time, with lots of road work on the way, but even when we reach Sydney it takes a long time to work our way though the edge of the city to our accommodation. The park is a bit of a disappointment, not that we were expecting that much. There is no INTERNET and the cabin is a bit cramped and a little on the run down ... read more