Chocolate Heat in Melbourne

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Weekend 6 Melbourne

savoring creamy chocolate beverages and strawberries

Melbourne is one of those cities that you know exists but probably don’t have a single shred of knowledge about right? For example, you knows about the Sydney Opera House. What do you know about Melbourne? It was up to Denise to plan our weekend there and after hours with Fodors and miscellaneous “come see” books we decided to completely wing it.

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When we landed we had no clue what to do. After collecting some day tour books, we walked outside and saw the red skybus to downtown for $15.00. Disembarking at the foot of Bourke street, we began what was to be a relaxing and eventful two days without pressure or schedule.

We caught the free city tour bus that took us through the city precincts. We ate delicious gnocchi in the Italian district and walked through well kept lanes and gardens before checking into our hotel suite. The heat of the day, over 100 kept the streets quiet as we ended our day at Zest restaurant.

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Saturday was more of the same punctuated by riding the trams, browsing through factory outlets – savoring creamy chocolate beverages and strawberries at Theobroma Chocolate Lounge—yummy. We rode to the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, The Rialto Tower – 55 stories – oh well, its tall down here and allows for a 360 degree panorama of the entire area. We again forged our way through withering heat to the Melbourne Museum and the Imax movie “Fighter Pilot”--- I think only one of use really enjoyed that.

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The Melbourne Aquarium, close to our hotel was one of the highlights with close up views of things that we were glad were on the other side of glass. We ended the day sipping on juice cocktails and were glad we decided against the long tours to see the penguins, animal parks and Ocean Road – maybe next time.