Good Bye to Australia!

Wednesday Dec 3

Well this is it, we are off.

A fond farewell to all the lovely Aussies we have met in our travels.  You have made this trip an incredible success!!! Merry Christmas to all of you!

First we fly to Auckland, then Vancouver tomorrow.  We have one day in Vancouver to help with time exchanges. Then off To Calgary to see Lisa and Ian.  Finally, home for Christmas and to see Andrew and Emily and everyone else too!

See You Soon!!

Kangaroo Dinner

Kangaroo Dinner - Tuesday Dec 2

Last day at the beach then on to the city.  We had a terrible storm overnight, so we slept in a bit.  Packing was a challenge as there were too many things to bring home.  We donated all our cooking utensils, towels, and food to St. Vincent de Paul.  They run a van every night for the down and out serving hot drinks and sandwiches.  We ran into them as we left the train station last night and knew that was where all our extra stuff would go.  They were pleased and took everything.

Next, we found a business to weigh our bags and ship the extra stuff home.  That was much less expensive than another suit case over four flights. (Auckland, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto)  Four flights to get home!!!

We drove along the Pacific Scenic Drive up to Sidney.  Coffees and lunch on the way.  I booked into the hotel while Alan took the car back while I checked into the hotel.  We are right across from departures and only have to walk.  They even provided a cart at the entrance of the hotel that can be taken over to the terminal tomorrow.  It was handy when I was manoeuvring the luggage etc. by myself. Alan had Kangaroo for dinner!!! And no I did not!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Day in Sydney

Monday Dec 1

At the beach.  Wake up, eat breakfast, pack for day in Sydney.  Try to lock door, door lock broken, man fixes, drive to train station, finally find parking, purchase tickets and ride train to Sydney. 

At the main train station we buy two lattes and get on the hop on, hop off bus, stop at Darling Harbour, take lots of pictures, then we catch a ferry to Circle Key and change to another ferry heading to Manley Beach. The wind is howling and the sand is blowing hard.  When we turn around we are glad we brought our rain jackets as a dark storm is headed towards us.

We take the two ferry rides back then join up with the tourist bus again and take it around the rest of the downtown before heading back.  We pick up lattes and jump on a train to Wollongong. Unfortunately it is the milk run and it takes almost two hours, nineteen stops later.  We would have had to wait for the fast train, so we made it in about the same time. 

The rain started and it continued all night.  This is the first full rainstorm we have experienced since we arrived.  The electrical storm lasted three or more hours and was in close proximity.  The power flickered only once.  We were worried that the river behind us would flood and looked out the back door to see that it was three times the size it had been earlier in the day.  Guess what I dreamt about!!! We did prepare before we went to bed, so we could hop into clothes and leave in a hurry, but it wasn't necessary, thank goodness!!

Wollongong Surf Leisure Resort

Sunday Nov 30^th

Time to rise and shine.  We are slow to get out of bed but pack up quickly.  We head towards the town of Fairy Meadow and our campground but stop to fill up our car and have breakfast.  We stop in Fairy Meadow at a nice little restaurant for breakfast.  We have cheese, bacon, mushroom and tomato omelets……delicious.

With breakfast over we head towards the local monthly market and have a look around.  In the stalls we find a nice piece of homemade nougat and a gluten free caramel slice.

After the market we check in to our new cabin at the Wollongong Surf Leisure resort for the next two nights.  We find a much nicer accommodation right by the beach. At the resort we do laundry and we sort our suitcases, paperwork, food, etc.  We are half packed and one step closer to being ready for our return trip.  Tomorrow we are heading to Sydney.

Blue Dog Restaurant

Blue Dog Restaurant - Saturday Nov 29^th

A very early morning today as we are meeting Miriam and Jackie in Milton at 8 am.  We are early out the door so on the way we stop in Milton at the Heritage Bakery to pick up a few bakery items to take to Jackie’s – some raisin scones and a GF orange polenta cake.  Jackie is a local rug hooker who has just arrived home from the hospital. We arrive on time and Miriam meets us at the driveway.  She introduces us to Jackie.  We have a nice visit and look at all of her rugs.  Miriam has to run a course this morning so she must leave and we say our goodbyes to her.  We stay and have coffee and eat the bakery items with Jackie and have a great chat.  We thank her for the nice visit and say our goodbyes.

At the shore in Ulladulla we do a nice shore walk to look at the fossils.  We take a few pictures for later reference.  After our walk, we start the drive towards Wollongong, but stop for lunch at the Blue Dog restaurant.  We have bacon and eggs, toast and latte’s which is delicious.  That holds us for a while, so we continue up to Wollongong and stop at “i”.  We have been looking for accommodation but have not been so lucky to find any so they book a room for us.  We will be staying at the Sovereign Inn for one night. 

We head out after a bit of work to find supper and end up at the Bowls Club where I have a steak and Katherine has a nice chicken sheesh kabob.  We enjoy the food and have a nice conversation with the locals.

Tomorrow we are moving to our new cabin for the next two days.

Australian War Memorial

Australian War Memorial - Friday Nov 28^th

We are up early this morning to start packing our bags and check out of our nice golf and country club.  We head to the Yoawani dining room to do a bit of internet work before we leave and this nice Yoawani employee meets us at the door.  He helps us log in and says would we like coffee, to which we reply yes.  He says he will bring us a coffee (very nice of him).  During our internet time, he stops in to see how we are doing and we have a nice chat about our travels here in Australia.  He is thinking of taking his kids on a trip and Canada is high on the list.  We give him a few good ideas and also provide a nice quick slide show on what they will see based on a trip around Alberta.  Before we leave he tells us we must go to the War Memorial Museum.  He also hands me his business card.  We thank him for the coffee and the great accommodation and off we go.  When wecheck the card later, we find he is the club CEO (Adrian Derham).  We take Adrian’s advice and our trusty GPS finds the War Memorial.

After finding the free parking in the basement of the memorial, we park the car and head upstairs.  The building is beautiful stone, with wide open front steps and when you turn around to look back, WOW…you can see clear to Parliament House??  The sight is spectacular.

Inside, the building is also amazing, with wings dedicated for specific time periods of war (First World, Second World, and Korean War) and dedicated to the Australians that fought in the battles.  They include static displays, historic films, and combinations of movie and sound to highlight specific Aussie battles.  They are very moving and we watch all the displays.  We spend hours in the wings and after we tour as much as we can, we move on. 

Upstairs and outside is the most emotional war memorial we have ever seen.  Two long, long walls covered in bronze plaques and highlighted with poppies dedicated to the names of Aussies that served in the Great War, the Second World War, and newer conflicts today.  It is very moving and we read as many of the names as we can.  We find one Cornthwaite that fought in the Great War, 58th Battalion (Cornthwaite, W.M).  At the ends of the walls is a domed room that pays homage to the Unknown Soldier.  The dome is covered in millions of tiles which create images of each of the different forces (Air, Sea, Army and the Woman’s force).  Just an incredibly special place. 

On the way to Ulladulla, we pass a sign that says local police doing random roadside breath tests…..I missed that sign.  Not far down the road, and around a corner, here is a roadside Ride Program.  The officers pull five cars over at a time, they ask for your licence and then asks me to blow into this small handheld device and count to 5.  You don't even touch it! He was more interested in the fact Alan is Canadian and says he would like to go to Canada someday..….the Australians and Canadians are so much alike. 

The ground levels out after the town Bungendore and it is much flatter.  As we get closer to Batemans Bay the country side becomes very mountainous and we are back into twisty, windy, narrow roads. 

Eventually we arrive in Ulladulla and we find a motel. Dinner is at the local RSL. We call Miriam and she is home, so we stop over for a cup of coffee, an oatmeal square for Alan and a great yarn.
We take a few more pictures of rugs and she asks us to meet her the next morning in Milton at Jackies house.  We agree, say our goodbyes and head out.  We leave a nice bag of wool bits with Miriam as we don’t have enough room in our suitcase.  She is very happy to receive them.  She gives Kath a beautiful pair of English hooks.  We will be up early to be in Milton for a visit at 8 pm.

Thursday 27^th Nov, Canberra the Capital City of Australia


At the National Australian Museum


  



Spirit Exhibition

 

Spent the morning at the National Museum of Australia. Wonderful Aboriginal display. Also, a wonderful display 


Horse sculpture using technology from time past.

called “The Spirit of the Horse”!

This was the history of the horse in Australia from the arrival and survival of one stallion, one mare and two colts, through to today with Olympic 

Spirit Exhibition

riders. What a great story! Met a grade nine class in the revolving movie theatre that explained the history of the country from its birth to present day.  Very interesting theatre, it revolves around you.


Great Fun!

Great GF sandwich at the museum, chicken, brie and caramelized onion toasty! Alan had a delicious chunky beef pie. Lattes too!

Lattes





Lazing on the couch.



Water wheel.

Sheep Sculpture

Afternoon spent in the downtown looking at the architecture, sculptures and fountains.   The Canberra Christmas lights down town is set up for a spectacular Christmas light display.  Apparently it has made the Guinness Book of World Records three years running, so this year it was moved to the capital. We saw pictures of last years show - looks amazing. Unfortunately we won't be in the capital when they hit the lights! Had fun shopping in the mall and that was the end for the day!

Flat Rock - No Snakes!

Wednesday Nov 26 – Flat Rock

Flat Rock

This morning was quite cold.  I had a hard time getting out of bed.  We had a beautiful thick wool blanket on our bed and no I did not want to cut it up for hooking as I was far too cold!

We drove the local one-way gorge drive of 4 km – again a single lane on a twisty steep road! The rocks were fantastic, well worth the drive.

We next went to Flat rock. This location we learned about from a shop owner in Bendigo.  She had listed a few places for us to stop as we headed to the nation’s capital of Canberra. Our instructions included a diagram and what tree we were to turn and stop at! Somehow we made it.

Once there, we stop and climb up a somewhat derelict path.  I was particularly nervous about snakes!  At the top, I saw what I thought was a fox running past.  We were amazed at the view on top of the Flat Rock.  What a large flat rock in the middle of the country side. Well worth the stop and no snakes!

Back in town we find the Beechworth Emporium and after a good look around at the Auzzie made items we purchase a few. We stop at the candy shop and enjoy the amazing displays, but did not purchse any sweets. On the next street we find the Divine Linen store, another great local store.

On the road, our next stop is the Woolshed Falls…this was also mentioned by the lady at the Whole Foods Store.   

The sign at the falls indicates this area was at the turn of the century a location where they mined gold.  Today it is a tourist attraction. We do find near the facilities, a sign that says no entry do to exposed mining shafts in the area.  The remnants are still being felt even after all these years.

We carry on the road and make our next stop at Tarcutta to check out another wool shop.

Not far up the road we pass the Tarcutta Textile Company and stop in.  We have a very nice visit with the owners who learn of our trip, and I show them my rug hooking, and teach them how. Before I know it, I am in the back of the factory and into the working warehouse to see all the textiles, patterns and woolen goods. What fun.  They throw out all their pure wool scraps!!! Rug hookers – check them out!  They then provide me with a big bag of woolen scraps that I can take home. What fun!

We purchase a few of their Aussie products before heading on to Canberra.

The countryside changes from mountains to rolling hills, much like NZ.  It is very dry and everything is in need of water.  We loved the rolling landscape.

By chance we met this couple from Western Australia when we were looking for accommodation. The local “I” was closed, so we were looking at the map when they arrived, quite lost.  We managed to help them find their hotel, so we went there to and ended up in a lovely brick motel-efficiency unit at the local Yowani Country Club.  I even managed to get a discount.

We had dinner in their dining room and called it a night and ended up sitting with this same couple. We gave them our large bag of fresh pecans and the nut cracker, this cannot be brought into Canada. They are moving from Perth in Western Australia to Wonga Wonga in New South Wales to live near their friends.

This had been a long day on the road.

Tomorrow we are going to see the city of Canberra.

Joss House Temple

Tuesday Nov 25 – Joss House Temple

We are headed into Bendigo to see the Joss HouseTemple.  This temple was an 1800’s place of worship for the many Chinese workers here to harvest the gold during that century.

The volunteer is thorough in her explanation of how the Chinese arrived to search for the alluvial gold (above ground) in the area during the gold rush.  They established a Chinese settlement that functioned on its own apart from the city pf Bendigo.  As part if that settlement, they had a temple where they could worship.  This temple was one of 7 that they were able to learn of in the area.  It was last used in the 1930’s and sat derelict till the Second World War when a new munitions factory was developed behind the temple.  At this time, the council asked that it be protected.  It was reopened in the 1970’s as a historical sight.  It is also open to those that wish to use it as a house of worship.

After our Joss House tour we head to the Bendigo WoolenMills.  This mill makes Australian woolen items right here and we make a few purchases. They sell beautiful wool that is machine washable. Laurie would like this as it is much like our favourite wool from Bowmanville.

Picnic at Waroona Lake, I have the usual corn cakes with peanut butter and honey and Alan has found a food truck! He has a Tex Mex hot dog which is a small hot dog with Mex hot sauce, cheese, sour cream and broken taco chips, all on a large cheese bun.  He thoroughly enjoyed it!

We leave Bendigo and carry on to Beechworth.  We stop at Mooroopna to get gas.  They provide us with a bit of local information and we head on to Beechworth.

Finally we arrive in Beechworth and it is in the mountains….beautiful.  We find a place for the night at the Beechworth Cabins.

After supper we hike around the town.  It is a beautiful little town steeped in gold mining history from the 1850’s.  Many of the original buildings are still standing as a testament to the hard work of those that brought the town to life.  The trees in the local park are from all over the world and are quite spectacular.  They were planted by a rich local in the early 1800’s.  

Tomorrow we are heading toward Canberra.

Talking Tram

Monday Nov 24 – Talking Tram

The day begins with the Talking Tram Tour. An excellent way to see the city and learn its history.

Alan is fascinated by the local mail carrier here!

Once on the tram, the driver takes us on a historic tour of Bendigo.  .

The tour head through town and speaks to the history of this gold mining town and the people who participated in it.  The history goes back into the 1800’s and is very informative.  Eventually we arrive at the tram sheds and have a good look at the building with a very large collection of historic trams.  Some are in full working order, others are being restored for service. 

Back on the tracks, the tour continues as we head towards the Chinese section of the town.  The Chinese had a large contingency here during the gold rush days.  They were proud, hardworking people with large gardens.  The vegetables saved the towns people by offsetting the effects of scurvy in that age.

It starts to rain and we return back through the town in the pouring rain.  The large river beds were empty, but for a tiny trickle, and after the rain were raging.  In the 1800’s they had paved each river with large stones as the miners sent too much debris down the rivers and they would get clogged easily.

We heard that there was flooding in Eaglehawk, so we went and checked our apartment. It was fine.  After lunch we tour the down town of Eaglehawk. Everything closes at five, so we are done for the day.

Country Towns

Sunday Nov 23 – Country Towns



Breakfast Stack!

Today we head northward.  We skip breakfast and head out of the hotel.  Off to Woodend again to check out the historic town.  We had a lovely breakfast at a café. We had egg stacks for breakfast.  They started with crispy potato rosti, then smoked salmon, then spinach 
and cheese followed by a poached egg and then topped with hollandaise sauce…truly amazing.

We drive up the hill towards Bendigo but stop at first at Kyneton to shop around the town. We both like Kyneton, it has that old town charm.

At Bendigo we go into the “i” where they find us accommodation. We rent a store front, converted into a tourist apartment in Eaglehawk, a suburb of Bendigo.  It was nice, so we are going to stay two days.

Most of the day was driving and checking out the local towns, so we are quite tired.

Country Fire Department

Saturday Nov 22 – Smythesdale Fire Department



Watch for the Kangaroos, Wombats and Echidnas.

We are heading to Melbourne today.



Is this a gold nugget?

Many of the churches in the area are made of blue stone.  They are beautiful.

 


 Smythesdale is a Champion Fire Department!

4 wheel drive heavy duty bush fire trucks.

We drive through Smythesdale where a fellow is working at the local fire hall.  We turn around to take pictures and he invites us in for a tour.  We climb all over the new truck (only 3 months old) and he explains all the functions.  We take many pictures inside the truck and out and he is very happy to show us.  He also provides some good history material on the fire service which we will take back to Andrew Petrie.



Woodside Park - Amazing Horse Farm!

Ballarat is a large city and we stop at the “i”, here the attendants say it is a good thing you are not looking for accommodation here this weekend as we have a horse race event (Ballarat Cup) and all the town is fully booked.  It is a beautiful gold mining town and had we know what was here we might have stayed for a few days.  We take a few quick pictures and move on.  Maybe next time we will stop here again.

We carry on to the ladies suggestion and drive to Woodend, again no accommodation. Eventually after a lovely drive through the countryside and seeing elaborate horse farms we end up at the airport as we cannot find anywhere to stay.



Hundreds of Kangaroos!

Friday Nov 21 – Hundreds of Kangaroos!



Scenic one lane highway - Grampian Mountains.

Off To Stawell were a friend’s long-time pen pal, of over fifty years, lives.

We have been instructed to drive along the Victoria Valley road.  We are heading to Hals Gap and this road takes us through two sections of the Grampian Mountains.  We start our trek at about 10:00 in the morning and the light is perfect: a nice blue sky with fluffy white clouds.  Not far along we have to slow as there is a small kangaroo on the side of the road (a wallaby we think)…it is beautiful. 



Echidna.

The picturesque highway grows narrower and narrower until it is one paved lane.  We felt like we were on the edge of the outback again.  The trees are magnificent and very large.  They are mountains are all around us as we drive through the grassy valley.

Hals Gap is our first destination on the way to Stawell.  We stop at the Lake Bellfield a man made lake which is the reservoir for the Hals gap and Pomonal communities.

The Boroka Lookout is wonderful.  We find an Echidna on the side of the road. It is somewhat like a small cute porcupine, so I had to get out, get up close and take pictures.  It was so sweet.



Kangaroo with joey.

At the Boroka Lookout you can see for miles and miles (hundreds of km’s) in many directions.  An amazing sight and well worth the drive.

Finally off to Stawell. Here we meet with Judy and Barry, our friend Donna’s pen pal. We dropped off pictures and a letter, had a nice visit and were on our way.  It was so nice to meet them. 

Stawell is a gold mining town and the mine is still working the vein underneath the town.  At the viewing area, for the mine we see a small tunnel into the earth.  When a large Euclid dump truck arrives from out of the tunnel, we realize that the opening is enormous.

In the middle of the road is a lizard sunning itself.  It seems the local lizard (Shingle Back or Stumpy Tail). It has almost no tail!

On our return trip as we cross the plains towards Hals Gap we see and watering hole and a large group of Kangaroo’s.  It is the first time we have seen more than three or four in a group.  We turn around and take pictures. A quick count comes up with 41.



Just a few kangaroos on the cricket pitch.

After Hals Gap we are very careful to watch the shoulder.  It is bathed in shadows and we really don’t want to run into a kangaroo.  As we approach our town there on the side of the road is a great big kangaroo.  We slow and he retreats into the bush.  Around the corner we pass a little valley and there on the hill are hundreds of Kangaroos.  We quickly turn around and pull over to the side of the road.  Here are many…silently hopping around and grazing on the grass in the receding sunlight.  We watch for a long time, take many pictures then head back. We see a few more enormous herds of kangaroos before we get to town.

 As we approach the town, there are 50 more on the cricket field. We stop to watch them.  Alan manages to get an amazing video. Apparently in a month when all the grass is dead, it already looks dead to me, there will be hundreds covering the cricket green, as this will be the only grass for miles.

The Chooks and The Twelve Apostles

Thursday Nov 20 – The Chooks and The Twelve Apostles

Today we head down the highway to have a better look at the Twelve Apostles.  There is a bit of rain in the air so we quickly park at the Gibson’s Steps once again and have a look.  The tide is in so we don’t go back down the steps.

At the Twelve Apostles Marine Park the scenery is spectacular. These giant rock stacks tower over the swirling waters of the Southern Ocean and are just unbelievably majestic from any vantage point.  The rock stacks are the remnants of a retreating limestone coastline under constant attack by the sea.  The cliff faces are eroding about 2 cm’s per year according to the information provided.  

We are in awe at the size, colour, shape, sturdiness of the rock stacks.  They seem to float in space above the level of the water, the sea lapping at their feet.  What a view!

The Loch Ard Gorge is also magnificent..  This cliff side location is the site of an 1878 clipper ship wreck.  The ship was called the Loch Ard and after it sank only two of the 56 people on the ship were able to make it safely to shore.  They named the gorge the Loch Ard after the ship. 

Further on we see The Island Archway, The Razorback, Elephant Rock, Mutton Bird Island, Thunder Head, Broken Head and Sherbrook Estuary (a wild, rolling wave beach area).  At this location the waves come crashing in and you are glad you are not in a boat bobbing on the sea.

We pass the nice little fishing village of Peterborough on our way to Warrnambool. 

We stop for the night in Dunkeld and stay at the South Grampians Cottages. These are beautiful log cabins on the edge of town.  There are lots of chooks running around! The owner gave us a dozen chook eggs to eat.

Tomorrow we are heading to Stawell.

Lots of Koalas!

Wednesday Nov 19^th – Koalas along the Great Ocean Road

Chatby Lane Boutique Hotel was the nicest place to stay. They even delivered breakfast to our room as part of the cost! We had a lovely view of the ocean too.

Port Campbell is our next destination.  The road quickly changes from sea shore to rock cliff and up, up, up we go to a dizzying height.  It must have been difficult for the miners of the 1917’s to dig the road along such a steep cliff.

Our first big stop is at Mount Defiance Lookout where we take a few good pictures of the shore.  Then we are off to Boggaley Creek where we take a few steps from the car park down to the sea.  The shore is very rugged, yet molten looking. 

We splurge for sandwiches at Apollo Bay, they were excellent.  All along the main street, between the ocean and the main street are beautiful carvings.

Our next stop is Cape Otway lighthouse.  As we drive into the lighthouse we see all kinds of cars pulled off the road.  There in the trees are lots of Koala bears.  We saw over a dozen and some with babies! They were low enough in the trees to easily see them.  What a great stop.



Baby with mum watching.

Next we take the hike to the lighthouse and Alan encourages me to go up it.   It was a little challenging as it was very tall. Once at the top the view was breathtaking.

Back on the road we stop at the same spot to take more pictures of the Koalas…..very neat. 

At the stop closest to Port Campbell we stop at the beach walk to see the beginning of the 12 Appostles.  These are the famous Australian rocks on the drive. The shore has rugged cliffs and there is a narrow stairway downs the side of the cliff to the shoreline hundreds of feet below.  We take the trek down and up. What a beautiful spot, luckily the tide was out so we could walk past the first point.  The sun made it difficult to take pictures as it was so bright.

Dinner in Port Campbell was at Nico’s Restaurant. We had a home-made gluten free crust on our pizza! Quite delicious!!

GF Pizza

Tomorrow we are going back to have another look at the twelve Apostles and take in all the other points of interest.

Split Point Lighthouse

Tuesday Nov 18 – Split Point Lighthouse

The only place in Australia that we have seen these signs.

We are heading to Geelong where we are headed to the Great Ocean Drive. Alan glances into the massive wheat field beside us and there is a large emu feasting on the crop!

Coffee at Bunnings, similar to Home Depot, at Torquay. We are almost at the beginning of the Great Ocean road. 



Surfers

Life savers!

We stop at a beach and watch the surfers, in Torquay, as they make their way out to the waves.  There are also many new surfers learning the sport, a school group!

Next we stop at Bells beach that has beautiful sand, but also the beginning of the rocky shoreline we have seen in pictures.  There are surfers here too and they are all waiting for the next big wave.  We picnic further down the road at Point Roadknight.  The trees are wind-blown and gnarly, and they show their strength against the strong sea winds from the south Tasman Sea. 

We stop at Aireys Inlet and the Split Point Lighthouse to walk to the shore and take pictures of the light house.

The shore is soft and warm with the afternoon sun.  As we round the point we can see the top of the lighthouse and the rugged looking shore below.  The rock looks black and molten and we later learn that this area was an active volcano 29 million years ago called the Aireys Volcano.  We spend quite a bit of time wandering the shore then a bit later move up the hill to look at the lighthouse and the overview from the lookouts.  It is a great spot to see the sea.



Rock at the shore.

We continue our drive and stop along the shore to take pictures of the amazing houses dotting the mountain side.  We stop shortly after that to take pictures of the overhead sign “The Great Ocean Road”.  This road was built after the First World War, beginning in 1917, by 3000 returning service men to provide employment.  We marvel at the Arch, the monument and the words on the displays.  There is also the remnant of Remembrance Day on the monument.



Unusual home.



Bathing Beauties!

 



Looking at us from over the roof.



Visitor at Coffee.



Pier at Lorne.

We find a boutique hotel for the night. Chatby Lane is lovely. The local restaurant at the pier is recommended to us and we head out four Blue eyed cod and prawns, finished with the most amazing Pavlova.

Madison & Melbourne

Melbourne

Monday Nov 17 – Madison & Melbourne

Melbourne Train Station.

Interesting architecture in Melbourne.

It is morning in Bacchus Marsh and we are going into the city today.  At the train station we purchase a Miki card that provides electronic access to the trains. You put money on it and scan it at the beginning and the end of the ride.  Very smooth train ride into the city.  The station is beautiful with an unusual ceiling.




Latte at the Hunger Game Café then we start walking through the centre of the city.  There are eight blocks each direction that is the downtown. A tram travels around it and provides free transportation for tourists. We wander through the shops marvelling the different wares.  Alan was quite taken by a cake shop that had a window stacked high with beautiful cakes.



Street marker.

City Tram

Madison meets us on the stairs of the Parliament building.  She navigates us easily through the down town to one of the famous allies.  The allies are full of cafes and shops.  We had a great lunch where we asked her all kinds of questions about going to Medical School in Melbourne. Madison was very obliging and patient with us.  She then walked us over the bridge towards the botanical gardens.  Here she headed out and we started down the canal.  We hope to meet with her on our return, after driving the Great Ocean Road.



Graffiti in an alley in Melbourne.



Another piece of graffiti in a Melbourne alley.

Art along the canal.

Outdoor space at the Melbourne Art Gallery.

There are huge boat sheds along the canal. Each is a separate rowing club.  There are hundreds of boats and as it was the day after a race, they were polishing them.  Quite a sight!

Church with Chris

Sunday Nov 16^th – Church with Chris

Sunday morning arrives and we have had a good night’s sleep.  We can here the rain falling on the roof so think it is going to be a wet day.  The coffee is very good, breakfast is just right and Chris has been very kind in including us in her meal dinner blessing (safe travel).

Sunday we are off to church with Chris.  Beautiful Anglican Church, here the children are raising funds for one of the local children who needs a wheel chair.  They went to a local bakery and made muffins, even gluten free, and lemonade.  It was delicious.  I have learned so much from Chris, even how to hook eyes. Yes, me with the eye phobia!

Thank you again to Chris and Jerry for the wonderful hospitality.  I will be in contact once we are home and the internet is readily available!

On the highway into Melbourne.

Busy highway.

Storm brewing behind the Australian Flag.

We drive on through Melbourne to the west side and book a cottage in Bacchus Marsh for the next two nights. Here we can get a train easily into Melbourne the next day. After supper we head to Mac’ers  (McDonald’s) where the girls there help us navigate the internet and help us with our phone. (Not an iPhone, that is for sure!) We contact Madison, a Canadian friend’s daughter and arrange to meet with her tomorrow.