Melbourne

Sunday, November 2..in Carleton area of Melbourne. This is an area where Italians settled in the early days. There are so may wonderful resturants it is hard to choose where to eat. Lygon Street is on the back side of the block on which our hotel is located.

We caught the hop-on/hop-off Visitor Shuttle, a very convenient shuttle bus that runs around the city. It is very prompt with a bus every 30 minutes. It is supposed to cost $5 per day with ticket machines at each of the 13 stops or at the Visitor Center. The ticket machines take only coins or credit cards. We had tried to purchase tickets by credit card...with no luck, so we boarded at the #5 stop on Lygon Street with the driver saying, "No matter, Mate, just get a ticket at another stop." So off we went. At another stop when the driver said we would wait a couple minutes, we again tried to buys tickets using our cards, as none of us had the requisite coinage...but, again it did not work, so we again boarded the bus and rode the complete loop, which takes about 90 minutes. The tour is guided with both the driver and recorded commentary about the sights we were passing. Only trouble was that our driver spoke so fast that we could barely understand his Australian English. But the brochure helped. And the recorded commentary was very clear. With this overview of the city we began planning our next three days. At another stop, we again trird to buy tickets on credit card, slowely realizing that the driver did not give a damn and that the machines were not working for credit cards on Sunday. So we rode for free.

We wanted to see the Queen Victoria Market, in existence since 1878. It is a very large market place with produce and food on one side and merchandise on another and attracts both locals and tourists. We spent about two hours there...taking photos and talking to merchants.

We decided to walk from Victoria Market to the Old Melbourne Goal. A Crime and Justice Experience, which had been recommended to Becky by the young French woman on the plane from Hamilton Island. This old jail was in use until 1994. Tom, Dianne, Val and Becky took the tour. Paul and Larry decided to continue on back to the hotel. The jail tour included signage about Melbourne's most notorious prisoners with extensive signage and photos. In a near by building that contianed the holding cells, we were participants in a mock lock-up and decriptions of what one whould go though, if arrested. Photos for a wedding were taking place in a gtassy area outside the jail. Remember: Australia was settle by many criminals...shipped here from England and Europe.

After the "goal" experience, we walked back to our hotel. After wine in Larry and Val's room we headed out to dinner at the University Hotel on Lygon Street, a most delicious Italian eatery. The veal special was melt-in-your-mouth tender. Also, two bottles of wine at only $18 per bottle; the best wine we've had so far on our trip.

Two couples at the next table weere in from Perth for the Melbourne Cup, a horse race that is a national event. Most all Australians we have encountered are very helpful and very friendly. We chatted, they took photos of all of us. We learned what a big even the Melbourne Cup really is. It's a public holiday.

Monday morning Paul and I set out early to eat breakfast and then to the post ofice to get a box so we could mail some extra stuff from the tropical sailing trip back to California by seal mail. After that we again caught the hop-on bus...free because of the holiday to see the parade that started at 12 noon.