On To Melbourne

We spent almost the entire day on the 24th leaving Port Douglas and making the trek to Melbourne. Since Judy woke me up so early that day (she is still having some time zone issues), we had about 4 hours to kill before the shuttle picked us up from the hotel. We had the very affordable continental beakfast ($10 each.......can you sense the sarcasm?) by poolside and then hung out there to do some web browsing and read our books. Judy was checking email & the like, while I was mostly checking football scores. Of course, the day we were leaving turned out to be pretty nice weather-wise. As we were on the 1 hour ride that was along the seashore from Port Douglas to Cairns all we could think was that this would've been a nice day for the Great Barrier Reef. Oh well, it wasn't meant to be.

We caught the flight to Melbourne on an Australian airline called JetStar, which is the Aussie equivalent to Southwest Airlines. Despite the low frills, they run a pretty good show and are pretty organized checking people in and getting them on & off planes. I think back to our flight last year on Ryan Air, the Irish no-frills airline, and there just is no comparison. We arrived in Melbourne in the rain and hopped on to the airporter bus and made it to our hotel. We got to a nearby Italian restaurant, Tutto Bene, in time for our reservation (booking, as they call it here) for my birthday dinner. We both had a pretty tasty risotto dish that had peas, pancetta & shallots.

The next morning we planned to head out to explore the city of Melbourne. Needless to say, Judy had found that there is a free hop-on/hop-off tourist bus that takes people around the city. If there is a deal to be had, you can be sure that Judy will find it. When I opened up the drapes in our room, this is our view:

What the hell do you suppose that is all about? This building is actually where the Eureka Skydeck is located, which is the highest point in the Southern Hemisphere to view a city. I don't know if I buy that claim.

We walked over to Federation Square and caught the bus and rode one complete circuit to see where we wanted to explore further. We saw quite a bit of the city sights, such as Flinder Street Station, Parliament House, Royal Exhibition Building, Shrine of Rememberance, and many other sights. We walked around some of the downtown business area and worked our way over to the Lygon Street precinct, which is the where Melbourne's Italian community is located, in order to have lunch. I was getting hungry, but Judy kept checking the time on her cell phone telling me that it wasn't that late. It wasn't until we got back to the room much later that she realized that there was a 1 hour time difference between where we were yesterday and where we were today. Hey, my internal clock is very reliable when a meal is overdue.

Flinder Street Station

Parliament House

Royal Exhibition Building



1888 Building - University of Melbourne



After lunch, we walked by the University of Melbourne, the Queen Victoria Marketplace, and the Queens' Bridge. We stopped at an outdoor place that was on the river to hoist a pint and watch the people passing over us on the Sandridge Bridge. We got back to the hotel in time to catch a breath, change our clothes and write this entry before heading out to dinner...............that Judy has a discount coupon for. Annie, you would be proud of your sister.