Melbourne

On the Monday we had planned to go into the city of Melbourne. This was probably not the smartest idea as it was the day before the Melbourne Cup (the most famous horse race in Australia), which meant a lot of people had taken the day off as they had the next day off anyway, and there was a parade and all sorts of other things going on in the city. I t took us about two hours to get into the city: in the car to Geelong, the train to Melbourne, and then change trains to go to another station. We got out on Federation Square, where there were stands, a band, outdoor bars and tv crews. We got away from there as quickly as we could, and found somewhere to eat some breakfast. Then we walked through the Mall, which is the main shopping street which is for pedestrians only. Most of the shops were the same as in any other city, but it was just too busy to try and find some other shops. We really weren’t enjoying ourselves much, so after walking along the riverbank for a while where Reagan had a pony ride and then a play in the playground, we decided to go back to Portarlington. We didn’t even get to go for a ride on the famous trams! If you ever decide to go to Melbourne, I would advise everyone not to do it around Cup Day…

That night Denise cooked for us again, and we did most of the packing for our departure the next morning to Albury-Wodonga, which is on the border between Victoria and New South Wales, right on the Murray River.