Melbourne

After exploring Western Australia, we flew across the continent to Melbourne where we took an apartment in the Central Business District for five nights. Melbourne is a lovely town and we had a great time there – both exploring and relaxing. Highlights of our time in Melbourne include:

Queen Victoria Market: This morning we walked to Queen Victoria Market, two blocks away from our apartment. The Market was originally opened in March 1878. It is an amazing collection of vendors selling non-perishable goods and those selling fresh fruits, vegetables, baked goods, meats, fish, etc. It’s a wonderful experience of the senses as well as an excellent place to shop for all types of goods.

One of the entries into Queen Victoria Market

Veggies everywhere!

Every part of the Market was crowded due to the
great bargains available

An aisle of butchers

There are lots of fish mongers too

Our goodies from Victoria Market

Central Business District: Melbourne’s Central Business District has a great deal of charm. There are lovely buildings as well as great shopping to be found throughout the area. What’s even better is that City Tram No. 35 provides free transportation throughout the area. To get a great orientation of the city, ride the entire circuit.

Tram No. 35 - The City Circle Route

St. Peter's Anglican Church

The Fire Services Museum of Victoria
(the building was built in 1893)

St. Patrick's Catholic Cathedral

This amazing Christmas tree is made from more than half a million
Lego Blocks! It features a great surfer in front

The view from the opposite side is more traditional with a sleigh; FYI, the
ornaments on the tree are the size of basketballs!

The Flinders Street Station serves the metro railway; the
station itself covers two city blocks

After enjoying Melbourne, we returned back to the airport using the great SkyBus transfer system (it provided door-to-door service to our apartment). From there we traveled to Bangkok, Thailand and then on to China.

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED, READ THE DAILY DIARY BELOW (TEXT ONLY) OR CONTINUE ON TO BANGKOK (just click on the link)

Friday, 4 December: This morning we arranged for a 7:00AM transfer to the airport. We were through check-in and security and into the new Qantas Business Lounge before 7:30AM. Amazing! We enjoyed some great brewed coffee and Panini for breakfast. At 9:30AM we boarded our flight to Melbourne. En route, we watched a great movie, “Last Taxi to Darwin” while enjoying lunch and great wine. Upon arrival, we took the SkyBus to Southern Cross Station. There we transferred to a smaller Hotel Shuttle which took us directly to City Tempo, our home for the next five nights. We settled into the studio apartment, had dinner and relaxed.

Saturday, 5 December: This morning we walked to Queen Victoria Market, two blocks away. The Market was originally opened in March 1878. It is an amazing collection of vendors selling non-perishable goods and those selling fresh fruits, vegetables, baked goods, meats, fish, etc. At the Market we bought almost everything needed for the balance of our stay. The Market offered amazing goods are great discount prices. While we were at the Market, we found the fish monger area and we purchased Aussie mussels for a celebratory dinner. We then walked back to the City Tempo to stash all our new-found goodies.

Afterwards, we walked in the opposite direction to catch the free City Center Tram (no. 35). We rode the tram on its entire circuit, including a newly-added extension to The Docklands. On the return ride, we got off at the Swanston stop to go to Woolies for margarine and tonic and their associated liquor store for wine for the week. We decided to walk back to our apartment rather than wait for the free tram. We returned home at 2:30PM and were both pretty tired after a very full day of walking, especially around the enormous Queen Victoria Market.

Sunday, 6 December (Happy Birthday, Terri!): Today we once again took the free city tram but instead of traveling its entire route, we took it in the opposite direction directly to the shopping area at The Docklands. We spent the day there wandering through the holiday decorations and stores and, ultimately, found CostCo. Since it was a Sunday, the place was jammed. We walked the aisles and discovered that most items are much more costly here than in the US but still a bargain for Australia. Our only purchase was delicious black licorice; Aussie licorice is definitely the best! We also visited the Food Court for a cold beverage. It was absolutely packed as it had the least costly food and beverage of any food outlet we’ve seen in Melbourne. We returned home late afternoon and took the tram to Swanston to once again make a quick stop at Woolies. Afterwards, we walked back to our lovely apartment on a very quiet street and enjoyed relaxing there.

Monday, 7 December: Today we used the free City Tram No. 35 to visit a variety of spots. We started at a beautiful garden at the corner of LaTrobe and Albert. Then we walked up Albert Street to visit each of St. Peter’s Anglican Church and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Both were very beautiful. Afterwards we walked to the Fire Service’s Museum of Victoria. It wasn’t open but it is a lovely structure. We then walked to Princess Theatre to take a few photographs of this lovely structure. We also walked to the Parliament Building with its enormous set of stairs.

Afterwards we were back on the City Tram to reach Flinders Square Station. We wanted to see the Lego Christmas Tree. It was pretty amazing. It’s 10 meters tall; took over 1,200 hours to build; it weighs 3.5 tons; and there are more than half a million Lego blocks. Wow!! Of course, after seeing the tree we wanted to take photographs of Flinders Square Station, itself a lovely and huge building. We were back on the train and got off at Swanston Street. We took some photographs of the lovely Library – we’ve been passing almost daily due to our visits to Woolies – where we once again stopped for some shopping. Then we walked back to Queens Street and our quiet apartment.

Tuesday, 8 December: This our final day/night in Melbourne (for 2015) was spent relaxing albeit it also was a laundry day. We had to repack in anticipation of our departure for Bangkok the following day.