Easter in Melbourne
Here's a report on our trip down to Melbourne for the Easter break. We went out to St Kilda, visited the Crown Casino, watched a game of footy at the MCG, went shopping, walked round the Royal Botanic Gardens and admired the view from the top of the Rialto Tower.
Because Anzac Day fell on the Tuesday after Easter this year, we effectively got a five day break from work. We decided to make the most of it and get out of Sydney for a long weekend. We got a package deal from Qantas, flying down to Melbourne on Thursday night, staying at the All Seasons Paragon hotel and flying back on Monday evening.
Melbourne is Australia's second largest city after Sydney, but feels much more compact. The city centre is based around a grid pattern of streets so it's really easy to find your way around. Public transport in Melbourne is excellent, with lots of trams covering the city centre and heading out into the suburbs. There's also a free City Circle tram that runs round the outer edge of the city centre every ten minutes. We made a lot of use of this. There are some of our pictures of Melbourne's trams here.
Because we arrived late on Thursday night we didn't want to do anything except go straight to bed. After breakfast on Friday morning we headed out to explore Melbourne. However, after walking for a few streets we discovered that just about everywhere was closed, and the city centre was very quiet. It was Good Friday after all.
So we jumped on a tram and headed off into the suburbs. We caught a tram out to St Kilda, which is on the edge of Port Phillip Bay. It was pretty windy, but we decided to go for a walk out along the pier anyway. It was a bit chillier than we expected! The views back to the city were good. It then started to rain so we took shelter in a nearby pub - the Esplanade Hotel (the famous 'Espy'), where we had a few beers and something to eat.
On Friday night we went out in search of something to eat and somewhere that wasn't closed! We walked along the south bank of the Yarra River where there's a big shopping and eating complex called Southgate. Amazingly, some places were open! Further along is the Crown Casino complex, which also contains plenty of shops and restaurants. Casinos don't seem to pay much attention to public holidays so everything was open! We found a very nice restaurant called The Duck (bit pricey, but excellent food and wine).
Just after we sat down we wondered what the yellow light that kept shining in the window was. Later we discovered that it was flames shooting from the top of tower-shaped fountains dotted all the way along the riverside! It seems this display happens on the hour every hour at night, flamethrowers blasting into the night sky. Very spectacular.
After dinner we decided to try our luck in the casino. Anneliese had some success on the 'pokies' (poker machines or one-armed bandits as you might know them). Martin then sat down at one of the roulette tables and managed to come away $130 dollars richer! Not exactly breaking the bank, but it paid for at least part of dinner!
On Saturday morning the shopping centres were all business-as-usual so we wandered around doing a lot of window-shopping. On Saturday afternoon we headed down to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (the famous MCG) for a dose of Melbourne's religion - Australian Rules Football, or 'the footy'. It was a game between Hawthorne Hawks and Western Bulldogs, which all the experts said would be a walkover for the Bulldogs. Happily the underdogs triumphed, the Hawks winning by 32 points. Despite not really understanding what was going on we had a great time. Martin definitely liked the easy availability of beer and pies during the game! Here are some photos taken inside the ground.
On Saturday night we again ate down on the south bank, this time at a restaurant called Deck, which was significantly cheaper than the night before but still very nice. After dinner we watched the fire display and also watched people getting very wet trying to beat the timing on the fountains!
After doing some more window-shopping on Sunday morning we walked up to the Queen Victoria Market. This is a huge market, with thousands of stalls. Unfortunately, the meat and fish markets were closed with it being Easter, but the fruit and veg market and some of the delicatessen stalls were open, and the general (suitcases, handbags etc.) stalls were all in noisy operation.
Later on we caught a tram down to the Royal Botanic Gardens. The Gardens are a great place to spend an afternoon walking. They do have a bit of a problem with Grey Headed Flying Foxes (a type of bat) though - the parks have instituted a cull because the population is getting out of control. You can see a couple in this picture, but this doesn't do it justice - there are literally hundreds covering the trees.
At the centre of the Gardens is a lake, which is home to black swans, ducks and waterfowl. There are also great views across the park with the city skyline in the background - here are our photos. We stopped off for a bite to eat at the Tea Rooms before heading back, just as it started to rain. We got a bit soggy waiting for the tram, but overall the weather wasn't bad at all for the weekend.
Sunday night found us (yet again!) eating at a restaurant in Southgate - this time a seafood restaurant called The River where Martin had some great Tasmanian oysters. It may seem that we were being unadventurous in seeking out restaurants, but there were just so many good ones in Southgate which were literally 15 minutes walk from our hotel!
On Monday morning we packed up our stuff but left the bags at the hotel. We went back to the Melbourne Central shopping centre where Martin had spotted some great R.M. Williams boots. These are famous Australian boots, and Martin had finally been able to find a pair that fitted. They're made of kangaroo leather and were pretty expensive, but are well made and will hopefully last a long time. With the boots and Akubra hat he bought at Uluru, Martin is turning into a proper Aussie bloke!
After buying the boots (and dropping into an Internet cafe so Martin could check on his Fantasy Football team!!) we set off for a visit to another Melbourne tourist hotspot - the Rialto Towers observation deck. This is an observation deck on the 55th floor of the tallest building in Melbourne. There are great views all around - you can see all the way to the coast and to the Grampian mountains inland. We took some photos which are here.
After that we headed back to the hotel to be picked up for the transfer to the airport, and onwards back home to Sydney. We had a great time and I'm fairly sure we'll be back in Melbourne at some point.