A trip to Sydney by train

In the last week of the school holidays we had to take our oldest boy down to Sydney to get braces on his teeth - his orthodontist's surgery was right in the heart of Sydney - near the State Library.  We took the opportunity to take the trip from Orange to Sydney and return via the train - the Countrylink XPT is a daily service from Dubbo to Sydney and return daily and although not ideal times for commuting it was a great way to plan for a few days exploring Sydney and the kids travelled for $2 return.

Lots of time for colouring... without getting travel sick.

Time for some puzzles... something we would not have been able to do in the car

The freedom that we and the kids experienced with no car for four days and a small backpack of essentials was great.  All this on top of the fact that the train takes the same time as a car to get to Sydney and you have no parking hassles in town once you get there and we got to have some quality time with the kids while travelling down because we were not driving.  It is certainly a trip that we will be trying again.

Here are some highlights from the trip.

 The Powerhouse Museum...

Slime making workshop

A snap shot of some startling statistics from the EcoLogic dipslay at the Powerhouse Museum (the numbers kept  changing as we watched)

The Darling Harbour area was also a highlight and a refreshing retreat from the hustle and bustle of the cities streets.

The water playground at Darling Harbour's Tumbalong Park kept the kids occupied for hours

The Chinese Garden of Friendship was a magic garden to visit

Bamboo forest - we would love to have a Bamboo Forest in our  yard

The kids enjoyed walking through the Royal Botanic Gardens

Looking at the Pitcher Plants

A Dragon's-blood Tree - just like out the Tashi stories the kids read

In the evening we walked home through Chinatown

Exploring Chinatown by night

All in all we had an intense couple of days in Sydney - but got time to relax on the train-trip back to Orange.