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Published: March 11th 2010
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Melbourne
View from the Skydeck Week commencing 1 March
Lemon size hailstones and Jude on the ‘Edge’
Following our adventures on the Great Ocean Road we now settle down to a week in Melbourne before we fly off to Sydney on Sunday. This gives us a chance to get to know the city a bit better and see some of the sights of Melbourne.
On Tuesday we visit Queen Victoria Market which was originally just a food market - whilst it still is, it now sells just about everything you can think of including numerous stalls selling ‘Australian’ souvenirs - one or two purchases were made! We met Mike for lunch and find out where he works.
In the afternoon we go to the Eureka Tower. The construction of this building was completed in 2006 - has 88 floors and it takes 40 seconds by lift to reach Skydeck 88. Before the latest monstrosity in Dubai was built the Eureka Tower boasted that it was the tallest residential building in the world. The view from the top is stunning - but that’s not all - not to get confused with U2’s guitarist they have the “Edge” which is a horizontal glass-cube which
Jude
"On the edge"! suspends you over the side of the building. Now I thought I was pretty brave going up the Tower but there was no way I was going to go out on this - Jude on the other hand has no fear and rode the “Edge” with no change of underwear required - we have a photo to prove it (not the underwear)! Maureen, I bet your legs are wobbling just thinking about it.
The following day was very hot and sunny so we spend it at St. Kilda which is about half an hour’s tram ride from central Melbourne. St. Kilda was once the City’s favoured playground for day-trippers. In the 60s and 70s it earned a somewhat seedy reputation for drugs and prostitution and attracted many of the wayward young generation and bohemians - John, you will be interested to hear that Nick Cave started out here. It has now become a somewhat ‘trendy’ place to be with house prices rocketing. The main street is mostly cafes and cake shops (very famous for its cakes). There is a long stretch of beach and this is where we spent most of the day - taking time out to sample
St Kilda
Beach Bum! the cakes, of course! During the week we wonder the busy streets of Melbourne and get to meet up with Mike again for dinner on the riverfront.
On our final day in Melbourne before leaving for Sydney we visit the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for a guided tour of the ground, facilities and sporting museum. Apart from staging international Test matches the stadium, is home to the Victoria Cricket club and is also home to numerous local club Australian Rules Football matches. (Mike and I refrained from wearing our England shirts and taking with us replica ashes urns)! The stadium will of course be home to the first Ashes Test commencing on Boxing Day this year - Mike will be amongst the “Barmy Army”! The tour was very interesting - they also have a ‘Long Room’ - and the museum underneath was also well worth visiting. Towards the end of our tour we heard rumours that a storm was brewing but didn’t think much of it as we had arrived in glorious sunshine. The rumours, however, were true as the heavens had opened during our visit and it was still pouring when we left. Thunder and lightening arrived in
MCG
The boys contemplating the next Ashes win! abundance and Melbourne’s traffic system was thrown into chaos. We got soaked and eventually heard that certain parts of the city had been hit with giant hailstones the size of lemons and had done much damage in addition to extensive flooding. We later learnt that this was the worst storm with the most amount of rain to fall in such a short time, for over 100 years - us Brits of course know all about rain! Fortunately Mike & Sara’s house was not affected
Sunday 7 March
Today we fly to Sydney, however, it does not bode well for my nerves when we arrive at Melbourne Airport to hear that the plane scheduled to leave an hour later than ours has been cancelled because it had been struck by lightening on its incoming flight! Our flight in pouring rain left a little late and whilst extremely bumpy arrived in Sydney without mishap. In contrast the weather in Sydney was hot and sunny. We spend the rest of the day looking at the favourite sights around the harbour and walking through the very pleasant Botanical Gardens. It is during this walk that we notice crowds forming on the quayside
Sydney
Queen Mary goes to the Opera! and soon we saw why as in the distance the Queen Mary 11 liner can be seen and eventually docks in the harbour. This ship is absolutely huge and makes a spectacular sight - it is, however, too big to go under Sydney Bridge so no photo there.
The following day we take the ferry to Manly which is a favourite beach resort for locals and tourists alike. We spend most of the day relaxing on the beach - Jude actually paddled! In the evening we walk to Darling harbour and actually find a bar offering happy hour priced drinks. You guys who were over here 4 years ago for Mike and Sara’s wedding will recall that the rate of exchange was about 2.50, however, you now only get about 1.60 A$ to the pound and therefore things are a lot more expensive. When we get back to the hotel we have a midnight swim in the hotel pool which is situated on the roof with stunning views of Sydney harbour.
Tomorrow we pick up our camper van…………!
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Sandie
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Show us your lemons!
Boys want a photo of the lemon sized hailstones, and James wants to know if they tasted lemony too!! We all remember St Kilda and Manly beach - which Richard says is the best beach he has been to. Mind you he's only been to Clevedon and Weston!! Happy Mothers day Jude! Enjoy the camper van trip. xx