Retrospective

Planning this trip to take place near the middle of Allan's seven weeks in France and Spain was a brilliant way to break up the time on my own. It gave me something to look forward after Allan left and the end was in sight when I got back.

So grateful to Nicola for accompanying me. We hadn't travelled together before, but I think we were pretty compatible!

I do love Melbourne - it is so pretty with its old buildings, and wide streets.  It had changed quite a bit since I was last there in 2018 - signs of the economic downturn, especially in Bourke St Mall, where there were a number of empty shops.

Nicola has much more energy than me, and I didn't want to hold her back but that was easily managed. We would come back to the apartment mid to late afternoon, and I would have a rest, and Nicola would go out for another wander (or postcard hunt).

If we were out and about, we would find seat with a view and sit in the sun and natter for an hour while my batteries recharged!

On the other hand, I was a slightly better navigator than her, so we generally got to where we were going without too much bother.  Two exceptions - we lost each other in Myers when we arranged to meet at the cafe, only to find that there were two cafes on different floors, and I didn't have roaming on my phone so we escalated up and down until our searches coincided.  The other was when Nicola was out on her own and got on a tram that was going in the opposite direction to that she had planned but she did manage to get back albeit in rush hour tram traffic.

The Victoria State Government had made all public transport free until the end of May to mitigate the hardship caused by the petrol price increases. It did increase the patronage so some of the trams were absolutely packed, but it was great to be able to get out to Geelong without even having to get a ticket.

My highlights were:

The vibe of Melbourne (love it!)

The day trip to Geelong (exquisite!)

Wandering the main street of St Kilda (replacing the calories we burned with those we ate and doggie bagged)

The nights out - two great shows and a good movie. Feels grown up to be out on the town in the dark!

The company - loved our chats, our laughter and our experiences.  We were pretty compatible in our decision making as in what to do next so our programme for the week just fell into place.

One last comment - our accomodation was brilliantly located - tram stop at the door and train station just a few minutes away. We had two bedrooms, each with glorious views from floor 54, and good lounge and kitchen space, so the living was easy.