Melbourne by day and night

We have had quite a busy time with Jane and Ian these last few days with Phillip Island and the Dongledangs but no trip to Victoria is complete without a visit to Melbourne. As their flight back to Sydney was at 8am we felt it better to stay in Melbourne for the night, especially because it was a Monday morning they travelled back. We booked into the Crowne Plaza and have both become premier members just in case we stop in another one on our travels. Again we travelled in on the train which is so much, quicker, cheaper and easier than driving. A day ticket was only $3.10 on a Sunday and that allows you to travel on all zone one and two trains, buses and trams and I also believe ferries but we didn’t have occasion. If public transport was made this cheap, clean and easy in England I feel that more people might chose to use it.

We started in the Victoria Market as it was only open on a Sunday morning and if any of you know Jane you will also know that she loves her shopping and it wasn’t long before Ian and I found a little bar amongst the stalls while the girls shopped till they dropped. Claire was the first to drop after our second round and Jane came in just before I bought the fifth round was ordered. However while she was showing us her purchases noticed that one item was faulty and headed back for a replacement. Two rounds later she was back and we shot back to the hotel on the free Number 35 tram to check our rooms out via Docklands for a spot of lunch. We had missed this bit along the side of docklands the first time around as we walked their from an earlier tram stop. This time however, we hadn’t got off until the tram disappeared around the corner and we soon realized that it was an area to see. We got the last stop and walked back along by the bay where all sort of things are going on with families enjoying their selves. We found the poshest little chippy that I have ever seen and couldn’t resist sharing fish and chips once more. This time they were really nice and very reasonably priced considering its position. If you had bought food on the south bank of London in such a location you may have paid slightly more. We hopped back on the tram for a quick stop of at our hotel. As the number 35 hadn’t come we waited for quite a while, while trams with different numbers came and went. We decided to get on the next tram that came along whatever the number. Again it was a different one and we didn’t recognise where it was going to but we got on anyway and were pleased when it stopped outside our hotel. I guess when you think about it, it couldn’t have gone anywhere else; after all it was on tracks, it couldn’t just turn off unexpectedly.

We had already left our luggage there at around 9am but it was too early to secure a room. We then got the tram from outside our hotel, at the advice of our Concierge, directly to St Kilda pier. What a buzzing place St Kilda is, although I was the second youngest around, little restaurants and bars and full of people. I would say that there were more people around St Kilda beach than in Melbourne proper. The skies were blue but the wind was cold and strong. If you look south out to see there is nothing until you hit Antarctica so the sea is permanently cold. When the wind blows from the south, it starts off cold and must get colder as the coldest air is made colder by the cold sea, all the way to Melbourne. I guess it is always windy at St Kilda judging by the number of Kite surfers. I cant imagine that such numbers just got lucky on a one off windy day.

We had a few beers in a bar called the Republica, again full of young beautiful people. Strange though, all the guys looked as though they had just come off the beach after a heavy day of surfing while all the girls were in their Sunday best made up to the eyeballs. The scruffier the lad from the beach the more successful he appeared if judged by the quality and quantity of talent that surrounded him. A great little bar with live music, cheap drinks, food and plenty of Ozzies enjoying themselves; this is more like I was expecting from Australia.

It was getting quite dark and Ian noticed in the brochure that the free circle loop trams stopped at 6pm on a Sunday so it was more difficult to navigate the other trams so we headed back into Melbourne and somehow managed to get off just around the corner from China town where we were heading. Ian liked the look of the little Chinese girl trying to get people into her restaurant which happened to be the first one on the strip. We hadn’t even had a look at the menu before venturing in which was our first mistake. Our second was to stay there before we ordered with the dreadful grumpy slow service. Anyway we didn’t leave, made our order and were all disappointed as the food was as bad as the service. Never mind we had all had a great day and the bottle of wine was good as all Australian wines seem to be wherever you buy it from and whatever it costs.

We managed to navigate and walk all the way back to our hotel with only one stop for a drink in an enormous pub called the Elephant and Wheelbarrow which seemed to us a rather unlikely pub name. “The Queens Arms” does go whereas; “The Queens Legs” doesn’t, except if you are Brazilian or Chinese. It was an enormous pub on at least three floors with those large sweeping thick wooden banisters and an old lift with copper doors. I wonder if it started life out as an Irish pub. One drink and we walked the rest of the way back where we had our final nightcap together as four in the hotel bar. We had a great three day Ian and Jane and we hope you enjoyed it to. In the morning we found out that Jane had paid for our room as well as theirs when they checked out earlier, so thank you guys come again!