MELBOURNE

Phil and I flew down to Melbourne on Monday. We left Sydney at 8am on a beautiful sunny morning - 25c. Got to Melbourne and had to rummage in our bags for a jacket. It was very cold and windy but then I saw it was 18c which would have been heaven to me last month!  According to Phil they say in Melbourne if you don't like the weather - wait 5 minutes! It is certainly changeable! Melbourne is built on a coastal plain so is relatively flat and easy to walk round.  After we dumped our bags we headed up the road to the Parliament building. We walked round St Patrick's Cathedral and then into Fairfax Park where we found Captain Cook's cottage which was apparently dismantled in Whitby and rebuilt here in Melbourne.  They were flying the Union Jack outside!  There are lots of lovely parks and open spaces around the City. The City itself has beautiful wide streets interspersed occasionally by a little street. So you get Collins Street and Little Collins Street,  Bourke Street and Little Bourke Street etc.  Then these wider thouroughfares are criss-crossed by little lanes like our vennels where there are cafe, pubs, trendy shops and loads of graffitti. In the centre is Flinders Street Station which is the oldest station in Australia and was a trysting place - see you under the clock! Across the road is a new open square Federation Square with an exhibition hall, open air cafes and a huge television screen where they watch sporting events like the Test Match and Australian Open.  Just what we are looking forward to in Perth!!!  We were tired out after walking round that lot so took a river cruise down to Williamstown which is at the point where the river Yarra enters  Port Philip Bay.  The Bay is huge much bigger than Sydney Harbour but not so pretty - there are loads of docks and industrial locations.  When we headed back up river the tide was rising and since we had come down under several very low bridges there was a bit of uncertainty about whether we would be able to get back again. As you can see from the photo it was a very close shave - you can just see the first mate's head about to be chopped off! Phil lived in Melbourne for several years and enjoyed revisiting his old haunts. We met one of his old friends, Roger (Santa) Hersey, on Tuesday and took the hop on/off bus to the Shrine of Remembrance and the Botanic Gardens.   They were staging a version of Wind in the Willows in the gardens, boys would have enjoyed it. Called in on the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the way home! Roger's wife is French and has lived in Nice and Grasse before coming to Australia.  We enjoyed Melbourne - a great little boutique hotel which was very central and convenient for sightseeing and eating out.

Pat has files to share with you on SkyDrive. To view them, click the links below.