Melbourne 5^th to 9^th December 2014

Arrived in Melbourne the previous night and stayed with Mike’s cousin Hazel, her husband Brendon and daughter Debbie. Their other daughter Katie was heading towards base camp at the foothills of Everest.

On our first day in Melbourne we were shown the transport options in and out of Melbourne city by using either a tram or train. We started our first day by taking the touring bus, a one and a half hour hop-on hop-off ride around the city, to get our bearings, which only cost $5 each.  

Melbourne City Tour Bus

We then took the lift to the top of the Eureka sky scraper to get a bird’s eye view of Melbourne. The tower is 297m high and has the top 10 floors’ windows coated with gold to signify the fact that Melbourne was the place from which the gold miners started their journeys.  It was a particularly cloudy day but we could just see out to the coast by the harbour. 

Eureka Sky Scrapper

Soccer stadium and Government House

Melbourne taxis line up for custom

We descended the tower and walked over to the arts quarter of the city to grab some lunch and a quick look round a display in the theatre.  

Sheila joins the chorus girls

There was a fascinating film of an Australian in the early part of last century practising on a high wire in his back garden; he had spent 7 hours a day for months perfecting a backwards summersault from feet to feet! He was incredibly skilful.

There are many parks and gardens in Melbourne so we walked across the street and saw many trees with the anti-possum plastic sheaths around the trunks as well as a few miner birds.

Australian miner bird

We had a quiet evening with Hazel and Brendan and Debbie, but the night time was disturbed by a most tremendous thunder storm directly overhead and three incredibly loud bangs at 5:30am, being coincident with the lightening.

On the Saturday the sky was still overcast so Brendon took us for a stroll around the Malvern suburb and we saw some fascinating individual houses both those that originated in the mid-1800s and some very modern ones including one where Sir Robert Menzies a previous prime minister lived. We did a bit of shopping and then headed for the bakery for the morning coffee.

Christmas comes early in Melbourne

In the afternoon Hazel and Brendon took us for a ride in the car along the coast east of the Melbourne harbour and out to Brighton where there are colourful beach huts. In 2011 one of the huts sold for $215,000!  Afternoon tea was a chance to cut into Hazel's amazing Christmas cake.

Brighton Beach

Sheila & Mike on Brighton Beach

The Gang

Sunday was overcast and drizzling so we drove into Melbourne to see Ned Kelly’s armour that was on display in the Melbourne Library. 

Ned Kelly's Armour

We parked in the Melbourne Museum underground car park and walked down to the Library. The Library is an impressive building inside with a centre dome and circular galleries where there are a number of exhibits. After the visit we ate a roll in Subway and then headed through the China Town area to the spot where we were to meet Amanda Sinden that evening. Amanda is the daughter of friends of ours in Sevenoaks and also a friend of our daughter Amanda. 

China Town in Melbourne

From the intended evening venue we walked back to the museum and took a look around. The building is quite impressive as are some of the exhibits.

We drove back to the house in Malvern, getting caught up with the Sunday traffic leaving Melbourne, showered and changed and then drove back into Melbourne. On our walk around the city during the day we had spotted an all-day secure covered park, which was only charging $6 on Sundays for the whole day so we headed there to park the car and then walked down to meet Amanda.  She took us to the Melbourne Supper Club and up to the Siglo Bar. The entrance is through a door on the street and if you have never been there before it would be difficult to find.   

Drinks in the Melbourne Supper Club

We then went on to the ChinChin restaurant , which is certainly worth a visit.  Afterwards we walked down Hosier Lane to take a look at the graffiti and then headed to Malvern.

Hosier Lane Graffiti

On Monday we changed the car at the airport since the hire company of the car (Apex) we had been using has no depot in Adelaide. We managed to get a rebate for the cost of the new battery, which was pleasing. On Monday afternoon all four adults played golf in Brighton and fortunately, for the first time for a few days, the sun came out.

Hazel hits out in Brighton

On Tuesday morning we packed and said our farewells and headed off along the Great Ocean Road in the direction of Adelaide.