Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Saturday March 21 we arrived in Melbourne in the late afternoon and dropped off the campervan intact. It was a long expensive ride to the Cosmopolitan Hotel in St. Kilda, a beach suburb of Melbourne. The hotel was lovely and they upgraded our room. The location was excellent only 1 minute away from Ackland Street which is known for its eating places and cake shop. ML decided that we would go light on the mains so that we could visit the cake shops. On Saturday night Ackland street was hopping and was wall-to-wall people- mostly young. On Sunday St. K. was hopping again as it was market day on the Esplanade - just 1.5 minutes from our hotel.The markets allowed ML to shop for local crafts made by local artisans. It was shop-till you drop for Ml while Jim people watched from benches and acted as banker for ML.When they closed up the market we went to the restaurant on the beach- another minute away-for a drink. Afterwards we strolled along the beach to see people para-boarding. They skimmed along the water on a board pulled by a parachute. It was amazing that they didn't get tangled upwith each other.(Nathan you need to try this.) We had supper at a lovely pizza restaurant and we shared one so that we could visit another of the cake shops for dessert. We found one that had a 50's style red arborite topped table. On Monday March 23 we started with a nice breakfast at the hotel and then strolled along the beach to the St. Kiloda pier. This was a famous promenade in the early 1900's when people were not allowed to swim in the daytime. At the Kiosk we had our usual latte for ML and flat white for Jim. We returned to the hotel to resolve our journey to Avalon Airport which was closer to Geelong than Melbourne. In the end we struck a deal with a taxi driver for $85.00. It was an hour and a quarter drive toreach a smallairport in the middle of a field (shades of Mirabel). Next stop Sydney!
NOTE: We are writing this entry from a campground in cape Tribulation north of the Daintree ferry crossing in Queensland. The computer is only dial-up speed so we can't post pictures at this time. We will catch up on pictures when we get access toa better computer. They even have to use diesel generators for their power. Jim and Mary Lynne
