Windsor, Whitewater Rapids, and Almost Face-Plant on the Streets of Sydney

On Saturday, we hopped into the jeep for a drive about an hour northwest of Sydney to the town of Windsor. (named after the royal town on England's Thames River.) (yes..the guidebook again.) The town was established in 1810 and reminded us a bit of New Hope for those blog readers of PA. Lots of bikers. We parked in front of the Macquarie Arms Hotel which has the claim to fame of having been used continously as a hotel since 1815 except from 1840-1874 when it was a private residence. Shown below is the outdoor walking mall that is the town's main drag.

Windsor is a town that's in an area of Australia called the The Upper Hawkesbury because the whole area surrounds the Hawkesbury River. Had to get a picture of said river, so...and look, a smiling Phil too.

Windsor has this restaurant called the Clydesdales Restaurant. It looks like a stagecoach that is pulled by Clydesdale horses that seats up to 8 diners and takes you on a 2 hour tour of the city while you eat. Cool, I thought. Not cool, when I looked online and found out that it was $145 per person. Yeah, right. So we ate at Windsor Seafood and had that good ole' stand by-fish and chips.

We then drove to find the town of Wilberforce. Yes, my blog readers of Cedarville knowledge...just like the Wilberforce near our alma mater. You drive a curvy road looking at farm fields, see a tiny little sign that says "Wilberforce", you blink, and you miss the entire town. And yes, it was also named for the English guy in Parliament that ended slavery in England. Not much to see, but smelled quite a bit thanks to the local farms so we turned around and pressed on.

We drove down to Penrith where the whitewater stadium is that was used in the 2000 Olympic Games. Very cool. We walked around the course and determined that we would be back to actually do it sometime.

After a bum-kicking by Phil in a heated game of miniature golf (sigh...another choke by yours truly) we drove back to the city to pick up some Pizza Hut for dinner. As I walked towards the car I'm still not sure what happened. Yes, I realize that there is a step down from the sidewalk to the street...but in the words of Phil who watched the whole tragedy," One minute you were there and the next you were down in front of the car." I'm happy to report the pizzas were never in jeopardy. I bravely held on so they wouldn't go sliding under the parked car in front of ours by the curb. Alas...that meant I landed on my knees. Hard. Still holding the pizza boxes. Man...that hurt/stung like the dickens. Four bandaids later and knees that were scraped up and ached like an old lady, I gamely limped around the rest of the evening. All is well today, though. And tomorrow I'll blog about my stunning achievement of today...I actually drove around Sydney. Yes...that's right.