Blogs from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Oceania - page 10

Blog 2 Melbourne, Aus. - March 10, 2018 – Weather: sunny with a high of 32°C We woke up around 6:00 am feeling fairly refreshed. Before breakfast I took a short walk around the area then off to breakfast. The evening before we had arranged for a shuttle to drop us off at the airport where we caught the Skybus. This is a low-cost shuttle service that uses double decker busses to transport passengers to/from the airport for $19 each one way. Far less expensive than what it would cost to take a taxi to drive the 30 km to the center of the city. Another advantage of using this service is that they provide a free hotel shuttle from the station to drop-off locations near your hotel. Our shuttle driver provided directions and after a ... read more

Melbourne is the second most popular city in Australia and Oceania and it is easy to see why. With the CBD (Central Business District) in the centre and the city spanning out it all directions Melbourne really does have everything. Before Europeans arrived in the area it had been occupied by three Aboriginal tribes: Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung and Wathaurong. The area was an important meeting place for them as it was a source of food and water. The first European settlement was established by Colonel David Collins in October 1803 near Sorrento but the ground wasn’t suitable for farming so the settlement moved to Tasmania in February 1804. It was another 30 years before another settlement attempted to stay in that area. In May and June of 1835 John Batman claimed to have purchased 600,000 acres from ... read more

25/2/18 We cleared up the rented house and started back to Melbourne. We said goodbye to the Wilson Promitory and the Bunurong National Parks now understanding why they fully earned their protected status. The weather is rainy and the temperature is 12 degrees C which feels decidedly chilly. We have been monitoring the weather back home and we know we are in for a cold shock when we land. We do not have big coats and very warm clothes with us so expect to be ill prepared. We stopped after about 10 kms. for a good breakfast at a cafe that was open on a Sunday morning and was doing really good business. We arrived back at the appartment in the early afternoon and busied ourselves with catching up with washing and blogging. We all went ... read more

20/2/18 Another bucket list item today. We felt we needed to spend more time in Melbourne city centre so the C. O. organised a plan of attack and I was briefed with the main details. We trammed into the Crown Casino stop on the South Bank Of the Yarra River in central Melbourne. We then caught the hop on / hop off bus at a stop we would never have found but for a helpful man in the huge Convention Centre. There was no bus stop evident and the website did not give an exact location. Our experience of the hop on / hop off service, in Melbourne was the worse that we have encountered. The buses are old and would not pass U. K. emission tests and the bus stop map is inexact and the ... read more

10/2/18 It's Saturday, so a bit of a lie in. I needed a haircut, in order to conform with regulations, so we all went to a shopping area and I was booked in for a "buzz cut" at "Edward Scissorhands". The others did something else. We all met up for lunch and the C.O. took the opportunity for some retail therapy. She bought a top from a shop selling posh gear, the cost of which is still a closely guarded military secret. The budget was not mentioned. The boys and girls were going separate ways this evening. Ollie and I had tickets for the Melbourne Cricket Ground (M.C.G.) for a "big bash" cricket international match between England and Australia. The ladies had booked to see a show called "Priscilla" which sounded very dodgy entertainment for impressionable ... read more