Rachel (my sister) picked us up from the airport with Maisie (my baby niece). We went back to her house for a bit and got to see Thomas (my 2 year old nephew). James played put the coloured dice in the coloured pot with him! We then checked into our hotel for the night in St Kildas which is quite a hip suburb in Melbourne – I would probably liken it to somewhere like Camden in London. Once Rachel and PJ had put the kids to bed we met them down the road at a pub called Barney Allens for a great burger and chips (this time we remembered to ask them to leave off the bizarre beetroot they put in all their burgers!) Then we went back to the hotel and off to bed!
Thomas!
Maisie!
6th November – This morning I woke up to a cup of tea again as the room had a tea maker in – what luxury! We got up early and took a wander round St Kildas, got a pastry from a cute little bakery and wandered down to the beach. Rachel picked us up at 12.30 and we went back to hers to spend the weekend there. We got treated to complete luxury with food – lunch was a quiche, cheese and crackers for an afternoon snack and then steak and salad for dinner. I have never been so happy to see a salad before in my life! We spent the whole afternoon planning our trip up the centre of Australia, calling tour companies and trying to co-ordinate everything which was surprisingly difficult with tours only going on a couple of days a week and nothing quite seeming to want to fit in right! In the evening we got to watch a bit of TV (again a total luxury by now) and then had an early night.
All the fun of planning our trip!
PJ cooking Dinner on the Barbie!
7th November – This morning we got up late (actually I’m not sure you can even call it morning) and after a quick shower we went out with Rachel, PJ, Thomas and Maisie to a Dim Sum place. The food was so great – really tasty and hot and although I don’t like Thai or Chinese I do really like Dim Sum. In the afternoon we all went to PJ’s brothers house just down the road as they have a swimming pool. Melbourne is in the middle of a heat wave for this time of year and it was over 30 and felt pretty hot! We had a lovely dip in the pool and then relaxed in the evening with Lamb cutlets for dinner!
Me with Maisie
Thomas playing on the Trampoline!
In the pool!
8th November – Today we got up early (for us) and we all went for breakfast by the river in Melbourne in a converted toilet block (much nicer than it sounds) We had poached eggs with spinach and smoked salmon!!!!! Then we headed to the botanical gardens so that Thomas could play in the children’s area which has lots of fountains and a tiny stream. Unfortunately it is closed due to the apparently nearly never-ending drought in Victoria so Thomas couldn’t go in :-(. Rachel and PJ took Thomas and Maisie home and left us to wander into the centre of Melbourne. It was very very warm and after visiting a war memorial we decided to head to the nearest air conditioned shopping centre on the free city tram (which unfortunately wasn’t air conditioned) . We spent most of the rest of the afternoon there, wandering around, before getting the train back to Rachels (20 mins into the suburbs and air conditioning – lovely) James then proceeded to get us totally lost as his sense of direction appears to totally fail in the Southern Hemisphere! We had another relaxing evening with spaghetti bolognaise for dinner. We struggled to get to sleep as it is so hot at night and there is no aircon in the spare room.
Out for Breakfast
The Botanical Gardens
View of the City
The Free Melbourne Tram!
Shopping in the discount Section!
Tired after the day shopping!
9th November – Today Thomas goes to nursery and PJ to work. Rachel, Maisie and the two of us headed out to the Mornington Peninsula to the wineries, stopping at the post office on the way to post 14kg of our stuff off to Sydney having decided our bags were just too heavy and to full to carry all around Australia. We stopped at a beautiful winery called T'Gallant at lunch time where we tasted some wines and found one we absolutely loved that tasted like wine with lemonade and lime juice in, but was in fact just a wine! We had yummy pizzas for lunch at the winery and then after visiting another winery and tasting some more wine we went out the peninsula for a quick swim which was lovely as it was really hot again! We headed back into Melbourne later afternoon and Rachel dropped us at our hostel in St Kildas where we were staying for a couple of night. I was a bit unimpressed to be surrounded by 7 boys – mainly because the room smelt fairly badly of sweaty boy and there were boys clothes EVERYWHERE! We went out to a fish and chip shop and had shark and chips for dinner which was really tasty – fish and chip shops have a much larger choice of fish to choose from and there is no haddock or cod so we were thrown into the unknown but the shark was definitely a good choice!
Maisie enjoying the wine tour!
Maisies first swim!
The state of the hostel!
10th November – We had a lie in again today and then headed into central Melbourne on the tram. We went back to the shopping centre to get essentials we had forgotten the last time like a wide brimmed hat for the centre. We wandered around Melbourne for most of the evening again and then had nachos for dinner in a place recommended in the lonely planet. It was nice to just really ‘do nothing’ for a day and wander around at our leisure.
11th November – Rachel picked us up from the hostel around 12.00 and we went back to hers for lunch, stopping to see the pit lane of the Formula One track on the way. You drive along parts of the track and it looks nothing like a race track at all as they totally dissemble all stands, sand bags etc. when the race is not on which seems a bit crazy as they hold it once a year! As it was really hot again (longest number of days where the temp has been above 30 degrees in Melbourne in November for 155 years) we sat in the air conditioned lounge and watched ‘The Wiggles’ with Thomas – a children’s show where 5 middle aged men sing songs – utterly transfixing if you are a 2 year old apparently! About 6pm we left with Rachel and Maisie to go to Anglesea, a town on the great ocean road and where PJ’s parents have a holiday home. On the way there we stopped to have fish and chips (Flake this time which is very meaty) arriving there late in the evening and ready for bed again!
The house at Anglesea
No comments:
Post a Comment