One of the newest and coolest skyscrapers in Melbourne.
We covered some kind of mileage today… or do they call it
kilometerage Down Under? We rose
(obscenely) early this morning and left Canberra
almost before dawn. A steady but soft rain
fell for the first couple of hours as we wound our way northwestward back
toward the main road that connects Sydney and Melbourne.
Even though the road was ostensibly an interstate, we passed
through multitudes of small towns along the way. In Australia, like the Mother Country,
they heavily employ roundabouts (or “rotaries,” as Sheldon calls them) so
instead of exits, you just zip around the roundabout, and if you wish to get
off, you take the left or right spoke of the wheel. If you removed the cars parked along the left
side of the road, you would be hard pressed to identify the small towns as
Australian instead of American.
Skyline from the Yarra River.
Each was
quaint and quirky in its own way, full of little mom and pop shops.
We stopped in one little town, Holbrook, and
sampled some of the finest homemade baked pastries known to man.
For a short while, we considered skipping
Melbourne altogether and
dropping anchor at that patisserie.
After significant debate, the three of us finally decided
that the land in the State of Victoria most
closely resembles Montana. In particular, we think it is akin to the land
that immediately precedes the Rockies… soft
grassland covered hills that undulate all over the countryside. In its own unique way, the land is pretty and
worth exploring more fully. Because of
our time constraints, we were not able to turn off on dozens of little roads
that would have led to any number of adventures.
The performing arts complex. Pretty cool looking at night.
Oh, well.
I guess that is for another trip.
We arrived on the outskirts of Melbourne around 3:00 this afternoon and
wound our way through a veritable United Nations to get to the city proper and
our motel. Seriously, this street had
hundreds and hundreds of shops that represented untold dozens of
countries. At one point, every sign was
in Arabic; at another, Greek. Italian,
Indian, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, and on and on. We settled on a place, though, right on the
tram (trolley) line into downtown. After
(literally) throwing our bags in the room, we sped toward downtown Melbourne and started our
exploration of this marvelous city.
Since we didn’t get downtown until 4:30 pm, our sightseeing
was at a minimum.
Our pimped out ride. Miller drove this thing like a beast.
Tomorrow promises to
bring a more active exploration, and we will write more about the city
then.
However, we did venture to the
world-famous
Lygon Street
for dinner.
Melbourne
is known as the restaurant capital of
Australia, and
Lygon Street is the epicenter of the
restaurant world here in the city.
Umpteen eateries filled both sides of the street, from the ultra-cheap
to the ultra-high end.
We chose a
medium-priced Italian place, which proved to be a great selection… first
because its food was dynamite, and second because it was just a couple doors
down from anther terrific gelateria.
I
could get use to this place.
More tomorrow, mates.
-Chris
