Melbourne

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Unfortunately our hotel choice in St Kilda advertised Wifi but it was non-existent and so I am now a little behind on the blog.  It also said "shower" - what it didn't say was that the water was either hot or cold - never temperate!  It cycled through all the temperatures no matter what you set the taps to.  Unless you wanted cold not yet good enough weather for that.   

St Kilda

I was really excited about going to the markets on Sunday as I assumed they would be like the Freemantle Markets.  However, there were only about 20 tents and if you discount the food/drink ones it wasn't many.  I assume the problem was an IronMan competition being held along the promenade and the main beach road was totally shut.  This being said it was lovely to watch and a relaxing way to spend a Sunday.  The main pier is having a $52m revamp and was blocked off so penguin watching also wasn't an option.  To be honest it was too cold anyway us we didn't pack a winter coat (that did not stop Karen getting us to sit on the promenade for two hours at dusk on Tuesday hence the sunset pictures)!!  Not that the cold weather stops some hardy locals - David couldn't believe the guy out swimming at 6am on a rainy Monday morning.



Melbourne

Hopping on a tram outside out hotel was easy although I seemed to be able to make it very complicated hehe, much to David's annoyance.  However I was right that we needed a Myki card before we got on one- these are easily purchasable at any 7-11 store, once you know!  The great thing is that you only get charged $10 a day no matter how many times you jump on and off either a tram, bus or train.  If you only use transport in Melbourne's CBD your journeys are all free.  So really easy.

Anyway we arrived and it was actually a nice day (as in not raining).  Like all cities, huge works are going on and opposite St Paul's Cathedral was no exception.  David loved Melbourne to his surprise.  It didn't feel as crowded as I expected even though it was very busy.  We saw most of the sights and loved the murals.  Our only disappointment was that the Federation Bells had been encapsulated by the "Dumpling Festival" which didn't open until 4.30pm and the security guards wouldn't let us in at first - they didn't even know what the Federation Bells were until we pointed them out!!!  Needless to say we didn't hear them ring which David was very disappointed about.  

The people at the information office next to the Town Hall were so helpful, not only in helping us plan our way around the city seeing the things we wanted but also helped us with our Great Ocean Road trip.  Was well worth the visit first.  The only thing I had planned on seeing but didn't was the botanical gardens.  We had planned to go Tuesday but were still exhausted and it was raining so we decided to finalise our trip for the Great Ocean Drive and booked all our hotel stops instead.  This turned out to be a good decision as places were starting to get booked out.

What pictures to choose??  We loved the architecture, the wall art, the statues, the monuments, the gardens.  Here is a snapshot of the snapshots.

Architecture




State Library


Old Melbourne Gaol

China Town

Statues and Quirk

Street Art




St Paul's Cathedral and Federation Bells



Mornington Peninsular

Due to how busy the road were on driving into Melbourne and the fact that Australians can't signal and tailgate you horrendously, David decided he would rather take the ferry (I know he choice another boat trip) to the other side of Melbourne rather than drive through the city.  So our final day in Melbourne was spend driving down the Mornington Peninsular.  It was lovely.  The sun was trying to shine and boy did you get to see how the other half live!!  We enjoyed the drive and the scenery so much that we drove past the ferry terminal at Sorrento and entered the NP at Point Nepean.  

Balcombe Estuary


Port Nepean NP

While in the NP we saw our first Echidna.  David was in front of me and I thought it was a statue so I didn't have my camera ready.  Of course by the time I got David to stop it had seen him and legged it so he only got its back.  It was very cute.


Sorrento



We caught the 2.00pm ferry and had a leisurely crossing to Queenscliff.  The Great Ocean Road awaits - very excited.

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