Exploring Sydney - The Grounds

Right after we moved in to our apartment we took the bus to Ikea to get a few little things. We noticed this a few really cool places on the way and tried to remember the names, we didn't. Every weekend we talked about, remember that one place? What was it called? Finally last weekend we decided just to walk along the bus route a see what we found. Two and a half miles later, with a few stops at antique shops, I'm glad we did, we found The Grounds of Alexandria - check out more photos here.

Its a really cool open air outdoor market with a few restaurants, beautiful gardens, a flower shop and a specialty grocery store.

Open seating area if you order food from the market vendors.  

This is a pretty typical bakery spread to see in a coffee shop. I always want everything.  

We snacked on some freshly made donuts from this adorable cart - your choice of filling, jam or chocolate made to order.

My favorite part of the market was the floral shop. The women running this place were also amazing, they made beautiful arrangements. I could have watched them for at least an hour. Is that weird?  

I'm not generally a rose person, but I love the peach and light pink roses here. So pretty.

I also love these larger billy ball looking yellow flowers.

And of course there is a small petting zoo for the kiddos. You can't really see it, but in the back right there is a grayish chicken that has some crazy hair, its like a puff ball. 

Lastly we strolled over to the specialty grocery store. The butchers in Australia are amazing - case in point. This store was awesome, I even found my favorite Herdez salsa!  

They also have 5kg tubs of Nutella - in case you aren't good at the conversion (I am not), that is 11 pounds of Nutella!

The only things that would make The Grounds better is if it were closer to the beach.