Last walks

[A] Our flight home didn’t leave until 6:00pm, so we got a chance to see a bit more of Melbourne.

I got up early for an ‘Arcades and Lanes’ walk, following a route described in a brochure we’d picked from the Visitor Centre.  Similar sort of idea to the walking tour we’d done in Sydney a couple of years ago.  Transpires that early Sunday morning probably wasn’t an ideal time to do this walk – several of the arcades were locked, so I had to detour around them.

And the bustling, vibrant laneways were all-but empty.

Anyway, all good, it was still an enjoyable walk.

After checking out of the hotel, we headed for Fitzroy Gardens, somewhere we’d never managed to get to in all our previous visits to Melbourne.  Reminiscent of an old-style London park, with plenty of trees, lawns and pathways.  All covered with autumn leaves!

We spent a bit of time at James Cook’s Cottage, the oldest building in Australia, although to be fair it was shipped from England in 1934 and then reconstructed here!

It was very pleasant wandering through the gardens, coming across plenty of leaves blowing in the wind, a Conservatory…

… a model Tudor village, sculptures, fountains, and a fairy tree.

We enjoyed our brief sojourn back in Melbourne, although we both felt as though we could have done with a few more days there – it felt as though we were packing quite a bit into every day.  Always more things to do and places to go!

[S] We often forget to write the final post of our holidays – we get back in to the hurly-burly after a long flight and the holiday memories fade quite quickly, sadly.

The last day was very pleasant out in the fresh air – we had a lovely Devonshire tea looking out at the beautiful grounds of the Fitzroy Gardens.  A bit of a change to land at Wellington Airport with a temp of 4 degrees and 100 km winds – welcome home to Wellington!

It was a lovely break though, and Melbourne is still one of my favourite cities in the world after Wellington.  We really know it well so it sort-of feels like home, but we always find new things to do – the perfect mix really. 

Woolly Geelong

[S] We’ve had a lovely day out at Geelong. The train trip was just one hour through mostly flat sheep country – the sky was blue although the air was pretty crisp.

Mum and I had passed through Geelong on our Great Ocean Road bus trip, but that gave no hint of what we saw today. I hadn’t even realised that it was on the coast, but the waterfront has been developed beautifully.

[A] Walked past the wonky Police Station wall on the way from the railway station.

[S] Our first stop was a Wool Museum which told the story of the early sheep farmers and the process of getting the wool off the sheep and into fabric, yarn, carpet and socks. The history was told interactively with hands-on displays and stories told by those who lived it – that’s the way I like my history.

[A] Also had a cool woolly spider-web art display.

[S] There was an enormous carpet loom that was over 100 years old and still in working order – we saw it in action and it was very impressive. Quite amazing that a machine that technologically complex could be designed that long ago. I gather that carpets are only made on looms in India and Portugal now.

After that we wandered down to the waterfront and a café Allan had seen online. It was very pleasant eating nice food whilst watching the world go by.

Then we hit the promenade.  Geelong is famous for its bollards – clusters of poles painted to a theme – quite funky! There was an indoor Carousel, creative parks and dead calm blue sea. Not a bad way to spend our last full day in Melbourne.

Free trams

[S] Allan's been at his conference from 7am until 8pm today, so what’s a girl to do?  Say no more.

I think I mentioned that the trams are now free - this means that…

1. Everyone takes them, even if they are only going a block or two
2. They are packed to the gunnels and consequently you are up very close and personal with complete strangers
3. We haven't been on a train on this trip where we would normally interchange trams and trains but they’ve offset the free trams by increasing the price of all other travel so why would you?

They are putting a new train line under Swanston St – they have ripped up the park just along from Federation Square and they have dug down and concreted the ground and walls.

At street level, they’ve painted a picture of a train with window you can look through to see the project. Quite cool. I imagine that they will reinstate the park once they have finished.

It is such a pretty city and the sun has finally come out. Shame this is such a short trip!

A beautiful day

[S] Just back from the show, Beautiful, about the life of Carole King.  It was fantastic – great music and fantastic staging.  All the cast were great and we just loved the show. Unfortunately, the last tram had already departed on our route so it was a loooong walk back and a bit much for my dodgy hip.

It’s been a good day all round really.  Nipped into the Queen Victoria Markets since they were so close and whiled away a couple of hours.  Had to yield to the temptation of the famed Donut Truck.

Then we trammed out to St Kilda to the famed cake shop and the famed book shop.  It was another greyish day so we didn’t see the beach at its best, but it wasn’t windy or cold, so all good.

[A] I jumped off the tram on the way back from St Kilda to visit the Shrine of Remembrance (war memorial).  Looks a bit parthenony...

At 11am on 11 November each year (Armistice Day marking the end of World War I), a hole in the roof allows the sun to shine through and illuminate the word 'LOVE' on the marble Stone of Remembrance.  I waited for the brief ceremony using a prerecorded message and artificial lighting that plays regularly during the rest of the year.  Well worth the visit.

[S] Last stop before the show was the famed Hardware Lane for dinner.  We always love going there for the entertainment value of the hosts doing all they can to entice the punters in to their restaurants.  No-one should ever pay full price here!  For us tonight it was a free glass of wine each and entrée or dessert for $7.  Lots of fun and the food was good too.

I love the vibe of Melbourne – the old architecture is beautiful, but so are the modern buildings.  It is so easy to get around and the people are really friendly.  Can’t ask for much more really!

We’re back!

[S] It has been four years since we were last in Melbourne and it still feels like one of my favourite places.

It was a very early alarm that woke us at 3.15 am this morning for our 6 am flight.  We were pleased to see that the violent winds and thunder and lightening of the night before had passed, although there were still plenty of ‘lumps and bumps’ as the pilot described it, to keep us alert.

We landed at 8.15 am local time - we’ve taken to lingering at the airport until the peak traffic abates, so we grabbed a coffee and some tourist brochures and sorted out local transport cards and data and roaming for our phones before a leisurely trip into the city.

We are staying in a different location from usual - we’re outside the ‘square’ by about a block, near the QV markets and the beautiful Flagstaff Gardens.  The free trams are just a five minute walk away, the accommodation is really nice, and we even have a pool and a gym.  I might be persuaded to do some lengths in the morning!

First job of the day was to try to get tickets to the show ‘Beautiful’ which is based on the life and music of Carole King.  We were pretty keen to see it so it was good to get tickets, since we had tried and failed online before we came.  Then we saw that ‘The Wizard of Oz’ had just opened so we tried to get tickets for that too.  There was a matinee on today with what seemed like thousands of college groups attending and the box office was so preoccupied with getting them in and having the show start on time that they wouldn’t sell us tickets, so will have to go back when they are less busy if we are going to squeeze it in.

I was amazed that I could remember where the theatres were after all this time – Melbourne is so easy to navigate.

[A] Found The Book Grocer on Bourke Street - $20 for three books was too good to pass up.  I'm pretty sure they weren't there last time we were here - there are obviously quite a number of them around now, and we certainly haven't noticed any before. 

[S] We’ve decided to take a day trip on the train and visit Geelong – the weather looks good on Saturday so we’ll aim for that.  Allan’s conference is on Friday so that’s shopping day!

Ate too many chippies with our pre-dinner drink (and kept falling asleep!) so just popped down to Nandos for a quick dinner.

St Kilda day tomorrow!

So long, farewell

Our last full day in Melbourne.

Not so good weather forecasted so we got out to the ‘London Eye’ aka the Melbourne Star first.  Having been told that this was the biggest observation wheel in the Southern Hemisphere, we now know that it is the only one in the Southern Hemisphere and there are only two others in the world.

Had a nice ride – great views as you would expect and pleasant way to while away a half hour.

From there we returned to St Kilda for a date with Allan’s book shop and a cake shop. After that we chilled out on the beach boardwalk.  The sea was gunmetal grey and very choppy, but it wasn’t cold so it was nice to blow the cobwebs away.  I do love to be beside the seaside!

We always try and catch a show in Melbourne but there wasn’t much on this time because the Grand Prix, the Fashion Festival, a food and wine festival and then a comedy festival are all on around this time.  We did discover that my all time favourite show, Blood Brothers, was on at a suburban theatre, so I jumped at the chance to see it for a third time.  It was a very minimalist production with a small cast and very simple setting, but it was very, very well done and I loved it again.  The funniest thing was that there was a table by the door selling programs for $2 and tissues for $1.  If you hadn’t seen it before, that would give you a clue as to what to expect.  Fortunately I had the foresight to pocket a serviette from the restaurant where we had dinner, so I was ok.

A fitting end to a great week.

We leave for the airport late tomorrow morning – our first (and probably last!) experience of flying business class.  Flying via Sydney, so it will be a longish day I guess.

Shopping update

Allan was out early to his conference so today was my big chance!

So now we are even (see earlier post), but one of us is more even than the other!

…Castlemaine and Maldon

We have had a lovely day out today.  We got ourselves out the door in time for a train at 9.11 am - after yesterday’s pathetic effort.   Our destination was the town of Castlemaine, which is an hour and 45 minute train ride from Melbourne. We had read about the Victoria Goldfields Steam Train that departed from there to the town of Maldon, another 45 minutes away.

The countryside, once you get away from the city, is extremely dry, and we saw areas that had been burnt.  I must confess that we both dozed a bit on the journey.  We had had a broken night with calls from Allan’s customers and enquiries regarding bach hire, so needed to catch up on a bit of sleep.

The weather today was crystal clear and 23 degrees – our first day with no showers or promises of showers.

So we climb aboard our first class carriage on the steam train – so elegant and refined and lots of fun.  We had coffees and cake, but there was also wine, beer and other stuff on offer. It was like a trip back in time and well worth the long journey.

Both towns were very quaint, with buildings dating back to the mid 1800s.  The businesses all seemed very retro and I must admit I found it hard to tell what were 2nd hand and what were new goods.  Lovely to amble around in the sunshine.

A whole different world to the hustle and bustle of the city and a thoroughly enjoyable outing.

Allan’s off to his conference tomorrow – I have some shopping planned, and maybe a return to St Kilda since we are expecting 30 degrees.  Bring it on!

Day trip to...?

So...today's day trip has become tomorrow's day trip.  We formed a plan, but didn't do quite enough research, and so our timing was a little out.  It's funny, because we have been to Melbourne so many times, that we just assume we know our way around, but in this case, we didn't.

It didn't matter though - we went down to Docklands to explore.  It has certainly developed since we were last there.  It has the largest 'London Eye' in the southern hemisphere.  We are hoping for a sunset ride when the weather obliges.  There's a fun park and dodgems, as well as lots of outlet shops and cafes.

Allan bought: two t-shirts, a sweatshirt, 2 pairs of jeans and a pair of shorts.
I bought: 1 t-shirt and 2 tops.  So who is the shopper in the family?  Just saying!

We have just come back from a lovely evening at a Lygon St Italian restaurant.  Good company, great food, a nice wine, and some lovely Italian waiters (oops, did I say that out loud?!)

Searching for the Aztecs...

Our new hotel includes a Continental Breakfast. Had our first laugh of the day when a young man appeared and helped himself to three glasses of juice - all different flavours and three serves of cereal. We assumed he was waiting for his mates, but no, out came his camera for photos of the feast. He was last seen working his way through his breakfast. Mystery shopper maybe?

We trammed on out to St Kilda and wandered up and down Ackland St. We spent maybe an hour at Allan's favourite book store and then overindulged at one of the gorgeous St Kilda cake shops. Just as well we're walking lots!

The plan for the afternoon was to visit an Aztec Exhibition at the Melbourne Museum, but we had obviously got our wires crossed as there was no sign of any such thing. We had even gone back to the Information Centre to check the location but we couldn't find the brochure again...weird! Maybe it will turn up later? [Allan: since discovered that exhibition starts 9 April - oops!]

Orientation Day

Spent the day refamiliarising ourselves with Melbourne. It really is a beautiful city - gorgeous buildings, lots of green spaces and street art, and a much higher standard of buskers!

We ran into a massive protest march - apparently 30,000 people took part, protesting about lots of different things for which they all blamed the government. All the trams had to stop for about half an hour as they came down Swanston St, and then up Bourke St to Parliament. We've collected a heap of brochures from the information centre, looking for new places to visit that we haven't seen on previous trips. We have a bit of an agenda now for the rest of our week.

We moved into our new accommodation - another great location, handy to transport and Bourke St Mall.

Despite trying not to, we ended up in our old favourite haunt, Hardware Lane, for dinner. Had a superb meal, cheap(ish) and cheerful and very well cooked, but it is the vibe of the Lane that entertains most.  We were seated beside a party of four Americans who were on a tour who had just come from NZ, which they loved. They had us translating the menu for them, and the wait staff were hilarious with them too.

After taking photos for them (as requested) on their own cameras, they commandeered them and took silly selfies of themselves and their co-workers - you had to be there!

Well ready for sleep by the time we got home.

[Allan: I always enjoy looking at the building design here in Melbourne]

No cyclones, just a Phoenix and some thunder

We’re here!  Missed the storms but it was still pretty bumpy at both ends of our journey.

The Phoenix Football team were on our plane – they’re playing Melbourne Heart tomorrow.  We’re slightly tempted to go and get tickets to support the local lads.

We have just tonight in this hotel.  Because the Grand Prix is on this weekend, the town is almost booked out and prices have escalated.  We had to pay more than we were happy with to get a bed, so it was quite satisfying to be upgraded to a ‘room with a view’ – just in time for the thunder storm!

Nice to be out of our cattle class seats and stretching the creaking joints.  Early night tonight I think!

Cyclones permitting

On our way again - cyclones permitting!

Flying to Melbourne at 3.40 pm this afternoon....

Melbourne - done

Finally got to Melbourne at 7.30 pm on Wednesday – a couple of hours late but never mind.  We had to pick up our key from another site and chose to walk the 2 km dragging our suitcases in 27 degree heat.  So, we have some calories in the bank!

A bit cloudy and very windy for our first day on Melbourne – Allan went off early to his conference and I just pottered around the shops until he got back at 8 pm.   Had to be a bit restrained due to luggage constraints and, after all, it was just day one of 36!

We had a quick dinner at Hungry Jacks and then a short walk before heading back.  Scary fact about Melbourne – lots of cafes and fast food outlets now list the kilojoules next to the price.  Puts you off an Aussie burger when they tell you it has 3745 kJs!

Just sitting at the airport now waiting to check in. London here we come!

The Last, Last Post

Forgot to finish the story... After five extra nights in Melbourne, we finally made it home.

The good things about the enforced extention to our holiday:

• Qantas accomodated us and fed us really well for the whole time We met some lovely people and there was a real cameraderie amongst the others we met. 
• They were mostly Australians trying to get to Tasmania.

The not so good:

• We lost up to half of each day trying to rebook our flight and our accomodation and get Qantas's acceptance of the costs.
• We were across the road from the airport but surrounded by motorways so we couldn't even go for a walk.

These things happen....

The 3rd Last Post

It's 10.15 pm and we have been on hold on the phone for the last 2 and a half hours, waiting to rebook. The hold music is rotating between 2 songs, one of which is 'I still call Australia home!' Is there a subliminal message in there?

Tomorrow's flight was cancelled while we were having dinner. Most cancellations have come in the night or early morning.

On the plus side, it means we don't need an alarm or wake up call, or to be ready to leave the hotel at 7am, so we can sleep in - yay!

On the negative side, I don't know when we are going to get home.

Today we taxied to the nearest civilisation - $17 each way to the Airport West Shopping Mall. We shared the taxi so a bit cheaper, and we went to a movie. It was really nice to get out!

The movie was Super 8 - weird as, and not our normal movie style at all, but moderately entertaining.

The hotel is feeding us well and we are meeting up with our fellow Wellingtonians at each meal. The humour is starting to get a bit warped - we think Qantas should charter a cruise ship to take us home!

The 2nd last post

Hello again from Melbourne! Our bags made it on to the plane on Sunday morning, but the flight was cancelled before we could get on.

We had noticed the fog that shrouded the CBD and were worried that it would hold up our departure so we were surprised when the announcement came that we were cancelled due to 'volcanic activity in Wellington' - didn't think we had any volcanoes at home!

The airline got our bags off and organised food and lodgings after a bit of waiting around. They re-booked us on to Monday's flight, but once we started watching the TV we could see that it might take a bit longer than that.

Sure enough, we got a text at 1 am this morning saying the flight was cancelled again. Luckily, we slept through it, but I saw the message at 5-ish and we were on the phone to Qantas by 5.30 am. It took an hour to get through, but we were able to get re-booked for tomorrow's flight.

As more and more people get disrupted, it will be harder to get onto the next flight. We weren't able to get confirmation that Qantas would cover our accommodation and food costs.

We had to go to the airport to do that (fortunately just a short walk away) - what chaos! The queues were massive so it took most of the morning to get sorted.

Qantas have been pretty good - other airlines are not providing accommodation, but we were lucky enough to be amongst the first disrupted. That meant we could find a bed. Some people off our flight opted to go to Auckland even though Qantas were cutting these people off once they landed there - no accommodation or flights or assistance to get to Wellington. Plus we'd been told that Wellington airport was closed, so all in all, it wasn't an attractive option for us. The people who took it didn't get there anyway, but the hotel beds were all full by the time they pulled the plug on that flight.

The communication has been poor though. They talk to a couple of people at a time, rather than announcing it to everyone, and no one really seems to know what's going on.

We've heard some terribly sad stories including a couple coming from London to his mother's funeral. They wouldn't have made it in the end.

The extra days haven't felt like extra holiday - too much queuing and wondering what our next move will be. We can't easily get anywhere from here so we've just had our wee walks to the airport.

Third time lucky tomorrow - hopefully!

The last post

We've had another lovely day today and it's sad to be leaving.

We took a train out to Williamstown, which is not far away as the crow flies, but is on the other side of the harbour/river mouth. We ate lunch out in the sunshine - one of my favourite things to do.

Then we ambled around the town and out on the pier. It was pleasantly warm and a relaxing time was had by all!

Tonight was our 'special' dinner at a posh restaurant down beside the river. It was nice but not exceptional. Just packing up now and getting ready for an early night before our 5.30 am wake-up - aaaagh!

A funny story to finish our Melbourne blogs...two or three times during our trip, Allan has been asked if he is eligible for the concession (seniors!) rate - mostly when he has been out with his much younger wife! Cracks me up, but a bit close to the bone for him since he is 50-mumble tomorrow!

The most fun ever

We just had the most fun ever eating out. We went back to Hardware Lane to find the restaurant that we saw that had pork belly on the menu. I mentioned in an earlier post how the restaurants have people outside trying to entice people in. We had a ringside seat to the guys around us - it was so funny. Our guy was hilarious, managing to charm most of the people he approached in. The offer was two courses for $29.50, a free entree platter and a free wine. Our guy and the guy opposite were trying to outdo each other and nearly came to blows about the other 'breaking the rules'. It was priceless to watch!

Amazingly, the food was very good too - not fine dining, but good and hearty. The key is throughput, and this was demonstrated when they gave us our bill, and then the next guy whipped it away to process before Allan had even had a chance to get his credit card out! We ate our two courses, plus our entree platter and our free wine and were out in an hour and a quarter, but we laughed so much, it was cheap at the price.

What next?

Today's been a bit quieter. We've done all the big things we wanted to, so we ambled over to Queen Victoria Market this morning. Didn't buy anything but 1/2 a dozen of their freshly cooked donuts - superb!

Then we parted company - Allan to bookshops and me to Target, the last shop I needed to check out. Stocked up on essentials, and then wandered back to the hotel.

The weather has been much more pleasant today - the cold wind has dropped and there were blue skies all day.

We went for a little trip on the train this afternoon and discovered Flagstaff Hill, a lovely park just outside the CBD. We just sat in the sun and chilled - most relaxing.

Back to Hardware Lane tonight for Pork Belly. It's just a quick trip on the tram, and so easy.

I do feel at home in Melbourne - so easy to navigate and get around. So many restaurants and such a nice feel.