Australia's second-oldest city Newcastle is located 2.5 hours north of Sydney. You can find historical architecture, fine dining, hip bars, quirky boutiques and a diverse arts scene to make it worth spending a couple of days there.
We arrived late in the evening on January 6th in Newcastle and checked into the Merewether Motel, which is located about 2km outside of the city centre. It is very stylish and even has a pool and BBQ area.
The next day we set off for the exploring city in the morning. Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best, because it was very smoky because of the bush fires and it was raining from time to time. We stopped at the Harris Farmers Market, where you can buy fresh food of good quality: like crunchy sourdough bread, which is not a very common thing in Australia; cheese, regional specialities, fresh fish, fruits and vegetables. As we walked through the city it reminded us of a European city, there are many modern houses, a wide range of restaurants and a good mix of historical and new stylish buildings. We walked to a natural pool, the Bogey Hole and had a picnic there. The waves were very high and broke right in front of us. The path called Memorial Walk was a bit challenging, but it was worth it. If you walk along the path you can also see the different beaches. In the evening we relaxed in the whirlpool while it was drizzling.
The next morning we had a little shock. We reckoned that we would be in Newcastle for another night and did not have to check out yet. But when I looked at my phone at 9am, my calendar showed me a booking in Port Macquerie for today. So we somehow forgot that we have to leave Newcastle and check out today, so we quickly packed all our stuff within half an hour and left the motel. Luckily we could leave the luggage there and decided to go to the free Art Gallery first, where you can make your own paper cut motives. Afterwards we went to a shopping mall and to the Newcastle Museum, where you could interactively do scientific experiments and learn about the history of the city, which was hit by an earthquake some years ago. Afterwards we went to the library. A personal recommendation of me is the Indian restaurant Darby Raj, where we ate three vegetarian curries with rice for only 10$ before we took our next bus at 10pm.
Merewether Motel:
That happens when you trust Co-Reiseführer Yannick and don‘t tripplecheck the dates ... I think we have to change it into Co-Reiseführer Tina just to be on the safe side 💁🏼♀️🕵🏻♂️
I thought I was travelling with Reiseführer Griesi but the shock that morning made me reconsider that...💤