Woke up to a grey and rainy day, which was OK as we are driving to Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city with around four million people .
We’ll be staying in an AirBnB flat for three nights, and are really looking forward to it. The flat looks great on the website, so we are hopeful. Nice to have a break from motels with tired pink bathrooms and old thick carpets.
Arrived earlier than expected, despite a bit of a tricky drive into Melbourne involving a surprise tunnel and some pedestrian streets….
Got into the centre eventually, only to find that bringing a car into the city is a very bad idea. First, the multi-story car parks are either closed on a Sunday ( it was Sunday), or crazy expensive, and the on street parking is totally confusing, marked with 1P and 1/4 P. We worked out that this means one or a quarter hour.
We decided we were in need of a beer and some food while trying to figure out what to do with the car. At one point we considered driving out of town and parking at the airport.
After moving the car a few times, we met Emma and Dave, the owners of the flat, who showed us the flat: fab! As nice as the photos, and E and D were very sweet and helpful. Tony had found a cheap car park near a casino, at the Crown entertainment centre, not too far away.
Having left our backpacks at the flat, we found it, parked, and felt very relieved (…although a bit apprehensive about ever finding the car again).
There is a food and wine festival in Melbourne these days, and while wandering back along the river bank, we happened to find this little place called ‘Bread’, which was part of it. Had a bite, then continued our evening stroll.
And our neighbourhood! Our favourite cafe/chocolatier right next door:
A bit of a late start the next day, as we are loving being in this smart little flat. A coffee in our regular cafe, and off to explore the shops. We decided to split up for this bit, – much better for our relationship, – and met at a great little Italian place for lunch.
Found a fantastic book shop, where Gro stocked up on books as part of her backpack lightening strategy:
‘Too soon old, too late smart’ by a G. Livingstone, a guy who was a surgeon in the Vietnam war, then a psychiatrist, and a twice bereaved parent, so probably knows a thing or two about the human condition, and ‘Happiness’ by Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard.
May have helped already, as I did manage to get up early and go for a run around The Tan, which is a 3.8 km track along the perimeter of the Royal Botanical Gardens 🙂
Thought I’d better start so I can join Rose and Cath when we get back. Missing you guys 😂
A possibly more effective backpack lightening strategy was shipping back 6.8 kg of ‘stuff’. Might see it again in three months time. Melbourne has excellent post offices with super helpful staff, which was yet another thing to like about this city.
We have tended yo try to do some ‘culture’ when we visit big cities, but this time, all we wanted to do was to chill. So we spent our time wandering around, along the riverbank, the fabulous shops and little alleyways.This city has more than its fair share of multi-storey shopping malls!
Should have taken some photos, but they were really just very swish shopping centres….
Lots of interesting architecture, old and new.
Going for her morning run around the Royal Botanical Gardens (did I mention this already?…), Gro saw a poster announcing an outdoor production of ‘As You Like It’. Sounded fun, so we went. The Botanical Gardens are huge, lots of lovely trees, really lovely.
Had a pre theatre drink at Botanicals bar, very humming. It was a wonderful warm evening. A low key performance, quite silly, with a small audience that appeared to mainly consist of family and friends of the actors, – and there was a full moon.
We really loved our three days here, a perfect city that has it all!
G&T x
tonyandgro 