Gateway to Australia

The only way to travel
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Cathy said that the only way I'd ever get her halfway around the world would be with her asleep. That's hard to do in coach! But thanks to frequent flyer miles, 26 hours of traveling will hopefully be made bearable by Qantas's first class skybeds. We'll let you know! More to come...

Well, we’re here! The first 28 hours were kind of a blur – planes, waiting lounges, more planes, customs, bus, and finally the hotel. But the highlight of course would be first class on Qantas. It was like a little hotel – eight of us in this good size cabin, each with an infinitely adjustable seat/bed and an entertainment system with all the movies/TV you could ever watch (of course Cathy watched Gallipoli, Gary watched Basic Instinct 2!). The beds were nice – able to stretch out flat and actually sleep, that is after the steward brought you your sleep suit and made up your bed for you. The flight left around midnight LAX time, so you’d think you’d go right to sleep. But no, first you had to have drinks (we celebrated with a champagne toast) and canapés, followed by a multi-course dinner of your choosing. No beer nuts and warm coke here! And it didn’t stop there – every time you took a breath, someone was at your side asking what they could get you, to the degree that eventually you wanted to be left alone! We definitely know how the other half lives now, and when we return to gulag coach, all this will be a distant memory. At least we glimpsed airplane heaven!

The Yarra river and recent development
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Day 1 - Melbourne is a good size city (4.5 million) with its share of skyscrapers and a good transportation system, but at the same time, very walkable and friendly – kind of like Chicago. Lots of gardens, museums, shopping, and interesting sites. Once we found the hotel and got situated, our first day was spent walking around our area, checking out the visitor center for places to see, getting a view from the tallest bilding in town, and taking a tram ride around the city. But the time change (10 hours ahead of EDT) took its toll, and by late afternoon we were barely still awake and called it a day. So much for exploring the nightlife!

Our guide Natalie
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Day 2 – Having retired early, we were up early, giving ourselves a chance to get organized and plan the day. The city is full of little alleys and arcades with lots of cafes and shops along each. Breakfast involved learning the terms for ordering coffee, a drink they are big on here. A ‘short black’ is an espresso, a ‘long black’ is a double espresso with a little milk, and a ‘flat white’ is like a cappuccino. The food portions are large, so once stuffed, we were on our way. We had made arrangements for a free guided tour by the Melbourne Greeter Service, where we met Natalie, a 70-ish volunteer who likes to show off her city. We had a private 2 hour walking tour, where we tried to keep up with Natalie as she ran us from place to place to show us the architectural highlights and describe the history of Melbourne. Very interesting, and we saw lots of old restored building interiors that we never would’ve known about without her. Reminded us again of the Chicago architecture tours we took, with a similar mixture of eclectic styles. After we parted from Natalie, we headed to the Queen Victoria Market, an open air food market selling just about anything you could think of. Richard would’ve loved it! After a bread/cheese/fruit lunch there, we headed to the Melbourne Museum, a quite modern building with an interesting mixture of science, natural history, and cultural exhibits. After a short rest, we headed off to the Yarra River walk, a restored area of retail, residential, and entertainment complexes, had a nice pub dinner, and headed back, exhausted again.

Federation Square
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I"m disappointed that we won't be able to go to a footy match, since the games are played on the weekend, but Natalie is a wildly enthusiastic footy fan and she gladly told me all about it.  Gary left out the restorative cuppa at the museum. Thank goodness this country knows about brewing tea. After running after Natalie all morning I was crippled and in dire need. I would have used the word “staggered” back from our pub dinner; unfortunately it had nothing to do with the pub offerings, but with covering lots of territory and still adjusting to upside-down time. But we’re ready to strike out into the countryside tomorrow.