Melbourne is notorious around Australia for being infamous for its wet and cloudy weather. Outside of Melbourne, that is. In fact, whilst Melbourne does have slightly more cloudy days than Sydney, Sydney actually has a higher annual rainfall. So that's one popular myth that has a bit of truth behind it, but not a great deal. But urban myth aside, during the 6 days we were there (well four days and two half days), it rained late Friday evening and showered very lightly a few times on Saturday. The rest of the time (and most of Saturday for that matter), the weather was dry and sunny. Well ok, there was some cloud most days, but there was plenty of sun. Like most of Eastern Australia, Melbourne is still in the grip of the Big Drought (now over five years duration) and is enduring rather draconian water restrictions - so any rain would no doubt be welcome by the natives.
A lot has been written about Melbourne, both documentary and also travelblogs so I will refrain from including all the background information I usually do on my travelblogs. Instead, I'll just talk about the things I did, the places I visited, my thoughts and impressions ... and lots of photographs - the main reason for this page. If you want to find out more about anything I've written about below, just go to your favourite search engine and see what's out there (I'll refrain from mentioning any since I don't get a commission).
Even tho' Melbourne Airport is quite a distance from the city centre it's actually even outside the 'burbs and is sited in semi-rural area, thanks to the government having sunk a lot of money over the past 20 years into infrastructure, the shuttle bus trip into the city centre took only 20 minutes (contrast that with the hour plus it took us to get to Sydney's airport and while we're near the outer fringes of the 'burbs, we are still in the 'burbs). We had a bit of a mix-up finding the place we were staying at - there're two of the same name (one the Causeway Inn, the other the Causeway Hotel), within a block of each other and owned by the same people. Naturally we picked the wrong one to try and check-in, but that was quickly .. and easily fixed - crossed the road and we were there (why'd the chicken cross the road? To get to the right inn, that's why!). We were at the "affordable" site rather than the "comfortable" one. Not that anything in the city centre is cheap. Not enough room to swing a cat ... heck, not even enough to swing a small mouse. Still, we'd only be sleeping there (and didn't bring any cats) and it had everything one would expect (even a stocked bar fridge) and more to the point, it was clean and in good repair. It also came with breakfast and the local broadsheet newspaper delivered early in the morning. Later we saw a room at the other site ... comfortably enough room to swing a cat ... or even a large dog if would be game to try that! Spent the afternoon roaming the Melbourne City centre. Window shopped (for Cynthia) and wandered past quite a few old and/or unusual looking buildings (for me to photograph). Town Hall, St Paul's Cathedral, Federation Square, the SBS building complex, the Flinder's Street train station (the main Melbourne train station), the Prince's Bridge (and of course the the Prince's Bridge Hotel) and many more. Lots of cafés, lots of sculptures. There're more cafés and restaurants in central Melbourne than there are pubs, which is saying a lot for any Australian city or town. Mind you, even the smallest cafe is allowed to serve alcohol (not that Melbournian's are sloshes, but they evidently enjoy a nice glass of wine with their lunch), something Sydney is only just starting to experiment with on a small scale - Sydney's organised crime gangs, sorry, it's big pub and club owners, have long resisted any move to allow cafés to serve alcohol (with their profit margin, one can hardly blame them). Melbourne looks nothing like Sydney ... at least the inner city. It looks more like a European city - apart from the lack of castles and equally old buildings. Still, the cathedrals are all in the gothic style. And there're lots and lots of 1930's vintage buildings, some pretty spectacular in their unique appearance ("Art Deco" as I was to later find out). Just like European cities there're lots of little lanes lined with shops and cafés .. with tables right into the lane. Some lanes only a metre wide, others up to 5 metres. Some're covered, some're exposed above (tho' with the height of the buildings and the narrowness of the lanes, they were pretty well protected from the elements). Back at the motel we ran into someone we know from Sydney ... who had a room in the same hotel, on the same floor (there're eight) and only two rooms away. Well it's certainly a small world! Had dinner at a pub-restaurant on Flinders Street, the Portland Hotel. Nice food, tho' the "root vegetables" that I got with my meat were a bit, well, unusual for root veggies ... pumpkin, squash, zucchini and so forth. Only one actual root veggie and that was some carrots. Not a potato to be seen. Strange! Spires ...
Lanes
& Arcades ...
Tranquility
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Artistic ...
Reflections
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Art Deco ...
Landmarks ...
At Night ...
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