Melbourne and the Spirit of Tasmania

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Melbourne and the Spirit of Tasmania
November 8, 2008

What a difference a day makes, in this case I’m talking about the weather. Today was cloudy, but there were patches of blue and no rain today. This time we took a train downtown just to try something different. Thankfully, a helpful young girl waiting for her train showed us how to buy the tickets from a machine and validate them in another machine.

Upon arriving at the city center, we headed straight for Federation Square and walked across the big open area with the jumbo TV (do all cities have giant TV’s in the city center now, or is it just in Australia?), then went down the elevator/lift, passing through the outdoor pub, ending up at the bicycle rental place next to the river. We spent the morning on the bikes and rode along the Yarra River for quite some time, then around the Botanic Gardens, then through more of the city that we hadn’t seen before. It was a beautiful morning! We ate lamb and chili sausage sandwiches at that same outdoor pub along with a cold brew. Great combination!

We did some more street walking checking out a few places we didn’t go to yesterday, then took a bus back to our camper. Even though we didn’t have to be on the ferry until 7, we wanted to make our way to the pier early in case we got lost. We spent the extra time walking around the port area. As with every day in Australia, we had interesting conversations with friendly people wherever we went.

Now we are on the very glamorous Spirit of Tasmania on our way to….you guessed it, Tasmania! This must be a very new ship because it is spotless and modern. We kept comparing it with the overnight ferry in Mexico from La Paz to Mazatlan which was awful. We were upgraded to a room with four berths so have plenty of space for everything. As the boat was leaving Melbourne, the lights in the city began to glow, what a pretty sight.

We are crossing the Bass Strait and even though this ship is big enough to hold 1300 passengers and 600 cars, right now it is rocking and rolling so much that sometimes items slide around on the floor or fall off the desk. I’m so thankful that I stuck that seasickness patch behind my ear before we sailed. Otherwise, I’d be pretty green in the face about now. Not feeling real perky as it is. None of this bothers Joe. No patch, no pills, no eating ginger for him. He thinks this boat is a rocking cradle and he’s sound asleep as I write this. I’m certain he will be up early with his binoculars on the outside deck looking for sea birds.

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Photos

Strange Freebie
This girl handed us free condoms when we got off the train. We gave ours to the bike rental girl.

Melbourne Kids
They loved our "accent" and wanted to talk with us about America.