climber7 thankyou for the help, much appreciated :-)

The stem is pointed down slightly, so I could flip it around. It would mean the stem writing would be upside down. I measured the height difference between the saddle and the stem and it's about 3 inches. It's only when the saddle is at the lowest height that it's about equal to the handlebars.

I went out for a longer ride this afternoon and I seem to be getting more used to the position. Today is the first time I've ridden a road bike, my previous bikes were all MTBs. The different position and firm jarring ride were immediately obvious, but so was the speed! This is a cheap, relatively heavy road bike (25lb), but it sure flies compared to what I'm used to.