And Then We Went On Tour: Melbourne

And Then We Went On Tour: Melbourne

After the sad business and investigations concerning Uncle John were all concluded, Wendy and I then felt free and happy to make the most of our grand tour of Australia: seeing dear friends we hadn't met up with for years (some for as long as 23 years!) and a couple of people we had only been in touch with through phone calls, letters and e-mails. We were looking forward to meeting them face to face at last.

We made the most of the rest of our stay in Brisbane, visiting Mount Kuthar; it's not far from Brisbane, and is not all that high! but it does enjoy extensive views over the city. On another day, we drove to Ipswich (no, not all the way back to Suffolk in England!), to visit the Queensland Railway Workshops - a very impressive facility, with a wonderful model railway layout to boot. Obviously built with love and care, we appreciated the intricate timetabling and the many different areas of Queensland featured over such a large area; we wished we had a couple of days more to take it all in, but at least Wendy and I had a fine taste of what was on offer. 

After Brisbane, we had booked a Quantas flight to Melbourne; as usual, Wendy reserved a beautiful apartment for us, and hired a car - she would not want us to be without our own wheels for long!

Wendy is so well-organised on these trips. As soon as we check in to an apartment, Wendy is straight into making sure everything is clean, ship-shape and (an old Royal Navy term) "Bristol Fashion" for us. First off, she puts the dishwasher on for a full cycle, before loading it with all the crockery and cutlery and setting it on for another full wash; as she says, you can never be sure how fastidious the previous occupants have been! 

 Our Tyrian 2-bedroomed apartment 

The view from the balcony of our apartment

Whilst the dishwasher goes through its programme, we boil out the kettle several times, and put the washing machine on for a pre-wash; then we set off in the car to find a branch of either Coles and Woolworths supermarket, to stock up with supplies! Woolworths in Australia is not the same incarnation of Woolworths that we used to have in the UK - the British version was not a supermarket, and Australia's has everything we need and like, and we do love the food available there.

Wendy is especially fond of the Chocolate Eclairs you can buy; the English varieties in Tesco or Sainsbury's tend to be mere shadows of the ones in Oz. The Woolworth's version is especially good: gorgeous, long plump fingers of choux pastry, filled with a copious amount of proper cream, and covered with lashings of delicious chocolate. They come in packs of two, and we were not stingy with the numbers of eclairs to which we treated ourselves! (See - I have not ended the sentence with a preposition...)

The first full day of our stay in Melbourne was spent riding the Puffing Billy train. The Station is a good hour's run from the city, and we enjoyed an afternoon riding from Belverdere to Lakeside and  back.

The following day, we had the pleasure of seeing the lovely couple we met on our first visit to Brisbane, back in 2001. At that time, they were running apartments called Greenslopes, and our friendship has lasted and developed over all the ensuing years; it was wonderful to have the chance to see them again at last.

They now live in Wangaratta, but they drove down to Melbourne, also booking an apartment in the Tyrian Hotel. As we find so often happens with lovely friends whom we haven't seen for a long while, after a few minutes, it felt as though the intervening years had simply slipped by, and it had been no time at all since we last met; we picked up again exactly where we left off. Slightly older (well, maybe quite a bit older!), we're still the same people, still happy and enthusiastic, and with great memories to reminisce about, and new experiences to relate.

Melbourne at night, and the Infinity Pool on the roof of the Tyrian Apartments

Roof-top view of Melbourne at night

We didn't have very much time to explore Melbourne: that will have to wait for another day, and another visit, but we did drive into the Central Business District, which is a bustling metropolis, and maybe one day we'll also be able to visit other places of historical interest that lie further afield, especially Wangaratta, which has its own Ned Kelly Touring Route. This treasure trove of Australian history takes you back in time to the late 1800s, when Ned and his gang were running amok through the Victorian High Country.  

The Kelly Gang’s legacy was formed over two years between 1878 and 1880, but the Route in question spans all the way from Melbourne to southern New South Wales; places to discover along the way, are the Old Melbourne Gaol, Victoria Police Museum, Stringybark Creek, and Beveridge – Ned’s first home – among many other points of interest. 

We don't know when "next time" will be, but these things remain on our "to-do" list.