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Published: July 20th 2014
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Last night we did most of our packing so this morning we just had to walk the dogs, tidy the house, pack the car and we were off into the city at about lunch time. We have been wanting to see the Aztec exhibition at the Museum Victoria since it opened in April. With the exhibition due to finish early in August we decided that we could fit it in during the afternoon before making our way down to Station Pier to board the Spirit of Tasmania.
We had a good run into the city and booked our tickets for the exhibition. It turned out that the two for one offer - if we mentioned the email we received on Friday night - was cheaper than our Museum Victoria membership entry fee. We saved $4.00!! After a quick bite to eat in the Aztec Cafe we made our way into the exhibition. As there was a family immediately before us donning multi-striped sarapes to have their 'Aztec' photo taken we managed to sneak by without the obligatory souvenir photo stop! Damn, the sign at the door said that photographs without flash are allowed. We left our cameras in the car,
but decided that we could take a few photos with one of the iPhones rather than go back to the car for a camera.
We were surprised to learn that the Aztecs, along with the Mayans, occupied mesoamerica or middle America (now Mexico) rather than South America like the Incas (modern-day Peru). Both of us had always thought that the Aztecs were more closely associated, at least geographically, with the Incas. We were also surprised that the Aztecs only enjoyed about two centuries of power before the empire fell to the Spanish. For some reason we both thought that they enjoyed a much longer reign. As always it was an interesting and informative temporary exhibition hosted by Museum Victoria.
From the museum we made our way down to Station Pier. It was still well before the scheduled sailing time so we popped into a cafe for a beer and a hot chocolate before joining the queue of cars waiting to be loaded onto the Sprit of Tasmania. I know that the Spirit is bigger than the old Abel Tasman but, WOW, I didn't know that it could take hundreds of cars, SUVs, four-wheel drives, caravans, camper vans and
trucks across to Tassie. With it being the end of the school holidays we think that we were on a pretty heavily booked crossing to Tasmania. Booked out even? The thing I was most pleased about - Port Philip Bay looked like a mill pond. With hardly any breeze I was feeling much less anxious about the crossing!
After parking the Mazda in one of the garage levels we made our way to our cabin ... eventually! There are so many corridors of cabins that all look exactly the same that we had to make a couple of circuits before we found the right corridor for the cabin with the number that matched our tickets. The cabin was small, but had everything we needed for our ten and a half hour overnight crossing to Tasmania. With our bags stowed we ventured to Level 7 to make a booking at the restaurant for dinner. On the same level we were able to stop in at the Tourist Office and buy a National Parks Pass. After a pre-dinner drink we went back to the Leatherwood Restaurant to eat.
Soon after we returned to our cabin we think we passed through
Port Philip Heads. It was about the time that we were due to reach the heads according to the PA announcement that was made as we departed. The boat developed a slight roll as we passed through the heads and then smoothed out again as we sailed on into Bass Straight. Barely able to keep my eyes open after sharing a bottle of red with dinner, I cleaned my teeth and climbed into my bunk bed for the night.
13,331 steps for the day (9.13km)
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