Melbourne: Day 5

Today was Easter, so after checking out of our hotel (no we didn't stay in the above beauty) we went to Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The Church, completed in 1897, is a beautiful work of architecture.  After Mass we walked around the inside of the church to further view the stonework and the amazing pipe organ that was used during the service.  Next it was time for some food.  We headed to a cafe across from parliament (below) and sat at a sidewalk table for a small brunch (of course we had a glass of champagne to accompany the meal.)

Having some time to kill before heading to the airport, we walked around the city a bit and wouldn't you know we ended up in front of the James Squire Brewery.  I had wanted to taste their stout, Craic, so we split a pot (glass).  Had I known it would be so good I would have bought one for each of us.  But it was time to move on, we walked over to Federation Square and watched a few minutes of a street performer's routine before heading to the airport on the skybus.  (A sculpture outside the brewery, above left, and buildings on Collins St, below.)

Melbourne: Day 4

Today most of the city had re-opened, so we started off the morning by doing a little shopping, but the big event of the day was our trip to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG) to watch our first AFL game (Australian Rules Football). The MCG was built in 1853 and even acted as an Olympic venue when Melbourne hosted the 1956 games (the first in the southern hemisphere). Today Melbourne was playing Collingwood and our tickets put us right in the middle of the Collingwood section.

This being our first game, we spent the first half trying to figure out how the game was played. It was fast-moving and high scoring, making it exciting to watch. There are 15 players on the field and two sets of goal posts, inner and outer. Scoring between the inner post is a goal and earns you 6 points and scoring between the outer set is called a behind and earns you 1 point. They play in quarters, somewhere around 30 minutes, but it is like soccer, so they never stop the clock during the quarter and make up time on the end, so you are never quite sure when the period is over.

We ended up watching an awesome game.  Melbourne, which was the underdog, was up 2 scores (12 points) going into the 4th quarter, but Colliingwood came back to take the lead by one with a few minutes left in the game.  Melbourne then proceeded to drive down the field and in the last seconds of desperation kicked the ball to an open man right in front of the posts.  He bobbled the ball and dropped it just as time ran out.  It made for a super exciting finish.

As we had been sitting in the sun for the entire game, we were quite hot.  Off we headed across the river to the South Gate district to enjoy a cold beverage.  After watching the sun set on the city, it was time for dinner.  We choose the swanky Taxi Room restaurant to celebrate our last night in Melbourne.  The taxi room sits in the corner of federation square overlooking the square and city on one side and the river on the other side.  Of course as this being a popular restaurant, and us being without reservations, we had to wait until nine to get a table.  No big deal we wandered around the city enjoying the people watching in the restaurant windows and on the streets.  Our dinner turned out to be a very pleasant evening, not the best food we had tasted, but good none the less.

Melbourne: Day 3

Today was Good Friday, which turned out to be a pretty big holiday around here, meaning most of the shops were closed. So, we hopped on the tram and made our way down to St. Kilda. It is a beach side town filled with cake shops, and lucky for us, cake shops are open on holidays. Once we arrived we strolled down the beach path toward Luna Park, an old-fashioned amusement park built in 1912. It is known for it's famous entry, walking into the mouth of a clown. One of the wooden roller-coasters was running past us as we walked by and you could see it from above the surrounding fence. The wild thing was, there was a park employee standing between the two cars of the roller-coaster controlling (what I imagine was) the breaking of the cars. How crazy is that?!?

After all that excitement we decided it was time for cake. So we walked down to the main strip and located what we felt were the top 3 cake shops. After numerous trips past the windows of these shops, we settled on one. Matt ordered a vanilla slice (a local concoction that is quite popular) and I had a cannoli (I am a sucker for a cannoli). Since it was sunny and warm and we were now on a sugar rush, we decided to head for a walk further down the street to another shopping district. We discovered this district to be a bit more ethnic, so not much was open. Coming down from the sugar rush, we opted to take the tram back to St. Kilda's main drag.

Our sights were now set on lunch, so we set out to investigate some of the places that had been recommended to us. We settled on the Stokehouse, primarily for its beach front location. Since it was approaching mid-afternoon we didn't have to wait long for a table and were sat not far from the windows. We had a leisurely lunch that was perfectly portioned and felt content when leaving. From here we wandered back toward Melbourne along the beach until we decided to hop back on the tram the rest of the way.

This evening we decided to catch another comedy show and saw Tom Green perform. We settled on Chinese food for dinner after the show. Perhaps it is how close to Asia we are here, but definitely some of the best Chinese food we've had! Afterward, we wandered the streets until we found a good place to sit and have a drink. The bar was in the new Council House 2 building, Melbourne's first attempt at building an energy efficient, green environment for its public employees.

Melbourne: Day 2

Today we checked out one of Melbourne's famous markets. We chose the Queen Victoria since it is the oldest (over 130 years) and most well known. Some of the stalls and buildings in the market have actually been registered by the National Trust. The walk to the market wasn't far and took us through the business center side of the city.  We were able to check out some of the architecture as we walked. Once we arrived we dove right in wandering through the fruits and vegetables over to the breads and cheeses and finally to the butchers and fish mongers. We couldn't resist not buying anything, so we settled on some bread, 2 types of cheeses and fruit for lunch. It just so happened that one of the butcher shops was Polish and as we passed I noticed some homemade breads on their counter. I stopped to inspect and discovered it to be poppy-seed roll; just in time for Easter! Of course, I bought some.

After pursuing the market we wandered over to Carlton Gardens where we sat dining on our purchases while watching a pick-up game of soccer in the park. Carlton Gardens is home to the Royal Exhibition Building. This was built in the 19th century to host the 1880 International Exhibition. In 1901 it was used to hold Australia's first parliament. Now it is a UNESCO World Heritage site (since 2004).

From here we wandered down Gertrude Street which is host to a number of artists and galleries. This is where Matt found his first Aussie souvenir: the Crumpler bag. This is a local Melbourne company that designs and makes bike messenger bags. Very cool. You can see a glimpse of the famous bag in "Melbourne Preview".

We next took a very long walkabout toward the Royal Botanical Gardens which are said to be the best in Australia, if not the world. On our way over we passed by the Rod Laver Arena, where the Australian Open is held every January. It is surrounded by a vast sea of blue practice courts.  Melbourne is interspersed by a variety of parks and gardens and we walked through 4 just making our way to the Botanical Gardens.  They were beautiful gardens and paths, but after another full day of walking our feet were beat.  We headed back to our room to rest and finish the rest of the bread, cheese and prosciutto before going out again to catch a comedy show at the Forum.

Turns out even though the show was in this wonderful old theater, our venue inside was little bigger that a broom closet.  They had 5 rows of 5 chairs crammed into this room (about 10 x 20 feet) and the comedian started out his act by making jokes about the room.  We actually picked this show because we met the comedian on the street the night prior.  He turned out to be pretty funny but the room made the whole thing a bit weird.

Melbourne: Day 1

Today was our first day in the city, so we were anxious to explore it all. We started off with a self guided walking tour to get our bearings. However, since this city is the cafe hub of all Australia, we were waylaid by lattes (and really, it was too chilly of a morning to be out and about so early). Once we had spent some time lingering in the warm cafe, we continued on our way. The central business district (CBD) is an 8x5 grid, with narrow alleys between the main streets. It is in these narrow alleys where many of the city's best restaurants and shops hide.

On our way to make reservations for dinner, we made a happy discovery. We found a bar featuring the microbrews of Victoria (the only state which has any boutique brews to speak of). Needless to say, we found our spot for lunch. Their other specialty was "parmas" or parmagianas as we know them in the States. Oddly, parmas are very popular in Melbourne.

After lunch, we wandered up toward little Italy (so Matt could get some gelato...it was getting hot at this point). By now our legs were getting tired, so we hopped on the free Circle Tram for a trip around the city. We jumped off at Federation Square (a central gathering point on the river) where a local radio station was broadcasting live. As a kick off to Melbourne's International Comedy Festival, they were interviewing some of the comedians. We basked in the sun while listening to the banter until it was time to head back to our room to get ready for that evening's performance of Jersey Boys.

The Grampians to Melbourne

We decided to check out some more of the Grampians before heading off to Melbourne today. So we picked a few short hikes to do that would give us a taste of the place and headed out. Our first stop was McKenzie Falls (left.) On our way back up from the falls, we saw a Kookaburra sitting in a tree. This is the bird of the famous Australian nursery rhyme and song "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree." After snapping a few photos of this guy, we headed to our next point, the Boroka Lookout where we were able to get a view of the Balconies rock formation. Finally, we hopped out at the Reed Lookout to get a view of the valley.

Before leaving Halls Gap, we decided to check out Brambuk, the National Park Cultural Centre. The building itself was amazing, designed to represent the wings of the cockatoo. It was filled with Koorie (an Aboriginal tribe) symbols and run by the Koorie communities. The centre tells the history of the people and the land. We spent some time wandering around here before getting some lunch and heading out.


Once we had driven out of the Grampians, we hit the M8 (which is their version of a major highway), so we had a fairly quick trip to Melbourne. We arrived, checked in to our hotel and scrambled to return our rental car before closing. Once we arrived back to our room, we were ready for the feeding-frenzy to begin! Our first meal was at Bar Lourinha, a Spanish/Portuguese tapas bar. Sorry, no pictures this time, but it was divine!

The Great Ocean Road: Warrnambool to the Grampians

A beautiful sunny day greeted us this morning. So we had breakfast and headed over to the Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village taking the scenic route along the coast. A few stops for some pictures and some coffee were included along the way. The village is an impressive recreation of an early Australian port. A movie, a museum and a number of restored historic ships and buildings comprised this Village and told the tale of the dangerous nature of the Bass Strait (due to its rocky coastline) and the enormous number of casualties it claimed. Imagine spending 3 months on a ship crossing rough seas and then sinking with your destination in sight?!?


From here we turned inland to head to the Grampians National Park. These ranges are known for their diversity of wildlife, both plant and animal, as well as numerous waterfalls and unusual rock formations. It is also an area with a strong Aboriginal history. We entered through the south of the park at Dunkeld, enjoying another scenic route. Halls Gap was were we made our base for exploring this area. It is in Fyans Valley and close to the Wonderland Range, where we would do most of our bushwalking. When we arrived we found that our room was an individual cabin on a hillside facing a lawn full of kangaroos foraging for supper.

We still had some daylight, as daylight savings time had not ended here yet, so we decided to trek to pinnacle peak (this is where the picture of Matt in "Melbourne Preview" was taken). The first half of this hike was through grand canyon, a rushing stream through a narrow rock-way. It was quite pretty.

The Great Ocean Road: Aireys Inlet to Warrnambool

We awoke refreshed, to a crisp morning, and headed out to explore what we couldn't see in the dark the night before. Split Point Lighthouse (1891) was just down the road, we walked up to it and caught some of our first glimpses of the coast line. After some brekky, we hit the road which took us through the Otway Ranges. Made up of two National Parks, these eucalyptus filled ranges sit right on the coast making it an incredible drive.

The first town we arrived at was Lorne, which is a trendy little town home to numerous cafes and bakeries and filled with tourists. We stopped for a snack and got some information on local hikes in the Otways. We decided to check out the trek to Erskine Falls before heading on our way. Only 250 steps later and we were standing at the base of these falls.


From there we continued onto Apollo Bay. It just so happened there was a music festival here, so we grabbed some fruit, bread and cheese and enjoyed some great people watching in this relaxed fishing town. Once it started misting we decided it was time to move along. There were still more sights to come.

The road took us back into the trees, through some hills and winds along until you hit Port Campbell. This is the most well-known part of the drive due to the gorgeous limestone cliffs and natural sculptures that line the coast. The first of which is the 12 apostles (appropriate for Easter week, eh?). Unfortunately there are only 7 visible today, but no one seems to know if there were ever 12. Other formations we caught included the Arch, the Blowhole and a couple of others we did not stop at due to the torrential downpour that had blown in.

Our drive ended at Warrnambool this evening, which is one of the larger towns on the Shipwreck Coast. Figures it would stop raining as soon as we pulled up at our hotel! Exhausted after a long days drive, we got some dinner and some sleep.

The Great Ocean Road: Melbourne to Aireys Inlet

Our holiday started off with a late departure, followed by a missed connection. So, our leisurely afternoon drive to the Great Ocean Road, turned into a drive in the dark to our hotel with a quick stop in Geelong for a bite to eat. Fortunately, our quick bite turned out to be at a tapas restaurant with excellent food. We fueled our drive with some rich hot cocoa and chai tea for dessert. It was after 10pm when we arrived at our hotel, but we were just happy to be there!

Melbourne Preview

It has been awhile since we have had the chance to write on the blog.  We just returned from a week long trip to the state of Victoria and city of Melbourne.  Here are a few pictures from the trip to wet your appetite.

This picture of Laura is on the Great Ocean Road at the 12 Apostles.

On the top of the Grampians

In the city of Melbourne on the walkway to the Melbourne cricket grounds (the stadium where we watched the footy game on Sat.)