Melbourne, Victoria

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We spent a month in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Kate was working with colleagues at La Trobe -- I was there to carry her luggage. There's a small downtown La Trobe campus near the Queen Victoria Markets and we stayed at the City Tempo apartments (a glass and steel high rise unit) just across the street. It was very convenient for Kate's work. We had planned a trip to Roatan (and Caribbean island, part of Honduras) but the trip to Australia was too good to pass up. We had been to Melbourne many times before but never for a long stay like this.

The nearby Queen Victoria Market is quite interesting -- there's a green market, fresh fish and meats, deli's, dry goods and much much more. We developed a taste for fresh mangos found at the market. While we were visiting there were several special events at the market including late openings on Wednesdays. And, as the picture shows, they were ramping up for the Christmas season. The market isn't open every day, but when it is, it's well worth a visit. There were, of course, nearby super markets (eg. Coles and Woolworths are two big Australian chains).

Our apartment was convenient, but sparse and very small. There was a tiny balcony we could sit on with good views of the city to the west but we both agreed we could never live in a high rise like that. Our home in St Marys is more to our liking. Cities are fine to visit but we like our life in a small town.

Melbourne Central (the large mall, the metro stop) was a short few blocks away. The historic circle tram line was just down the street. Getting around in Melbourne's CBD is pretty easy -- there's lots of trams and they're all free within the CBD and not very expensive beyond the city. I understood that there was to be an experiment to try a month where the entire CBD would be car-free and pedestrian friendly. Access to the transit system was with a tap card that you'd recharge when needed. The beauty of the system was that you could go far out of the city by train on the same card.

The Shopping Arcades and Alley's are an interesting feature of the CBD. Fun to explore, loaded with shops and restaurants, connecting the various malls.

Federation Square and the Flinders Train Station on the Yarra River are essentials. There's often events on Federation Square. There's also the ACMI (Australia Center for Moving Images) and The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia to explore. Across the river on St Kilda Rd there's the large NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) which we explored. Across the road is the Shrine of Remembrance and the Royal Botanic Gardens.

We didn't take our bikes with us on this trip (airlines hit you pretty hard for an extra bag). Instead we rented city-bikes and/or road the trams. The city bikes are clunky but convenient and good enough for us. We made it down to St Kilda beach and biked along the shore of Port Phillip Bay but it was too early in the season for swimming. One evening we went out the pier at St Kilda beach to see the "Fairy Penguins" that hide out in the break wall. A rookery has been established there and is fenced off to keep tourists from bothering the birds.

There was a "Noodle Market" one day on the riverbank near Federation Square. We checked it out but could not find any vendor who actually sold noodles! Really! We ended up at the Noodle Kingdom, a Chinese restaurant on Swanston St in Chinatown, to have a dinner with fresh pulled noodles. Later we took some of our Melbourne colleagues there.

I explored the Docklands and beyond to the Bolte Bridge -- you can get there on the Circle Tram line. Melbourne has a modern container port on the Yarra further. The docklands are where the old port used to be -- from the days when ships were loaded and unloaded by stevedores. It's now a pretty posh area of city with some very trendy, modern apartments.

Flagstaff Gardens is a public park just down the street from us. We were lucky to be there when the Jacaranda trees bloomed. Our friends at La Trobe played in a netball league in the park (it's a uniquely Australian game a bit like basketball except there's no travelling with the ball).

RMIT is another university in Melbourne just around the corner from us. We went a punk exhibit at a gallery at RMIT and learned a bit of history of the movement in Germany and Australia.

The State Library of Victoria was nearby and well worth a visit. There's an exhibit of Ned Nelly (famous outlaw of the late 1855-1880) -- his armor and his death mask. And there's a gallery to explore as well. The domed reading room is very impressive.

Outside the city took a train to visit with Kate's colleague Pete in Geelong.  We rented a car and took in the Yarra Valley wineries, Kokoda Memorial Walk (a challenging 1,000 Steps hike through the forest), we rode the Puffing Billy Train and had lunch on it. Our friend Anne-Marie took us out to the McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park on an overnight trip to see the Fairy Penguins when they return at dusk to their rookery on Phillip Island. We  explored wineries on the Mornington Peninsula with David and Angela. Another time we rented a car and explored wineries on the Bellarine Peninsula. We stayed overnight near Queenscliffe on the Bellarine where the ferry runs across to Sorrento on the other side. We were there for the lighting of a huge Christmas tree on nearby Point Lonsdale. We joined a local Beefsteak and Burgundy wine club for a dinner at Diggers Rest (we used the train system which is integrated with the Melbourne tram system). "Diggers" are miners, this was a "rest" stop on the way to the Gold Fields during the gold Victoria Gold Rush of 1851-60. It's famous for the first manned flight, by Houdini no less, in Australia!

Of course we explored the along the Yarra river in the city. The Casino was all decked out for Christmas. One day I took a ferry from the Southbank out to Williamstown. There's a lovely little beach there and the day I visited people were in the water. There's also a lovely botanic gardens to explore. You can get there as easily on the metro system.

I spent a day at the Melbourne Museum (a short tram ride from our place), Kate and I explored the Heide Museum of Modern Art (a much longer tram ride out into the country).

Here's a photo album if you'd care to see some of our adventures.