Friday 5th July
It was overcast for our last morning in Geelong but Mark still ventured out for a ride and I did my usual combo of yoga and a walk. I had Seth for my walk this morning and discovered a lovely harbour pool and stately beach Pavilion that looks like it would be a lovely place to visit in the summer.
The final three nights of this trip were spent in the Southbank region of Melbourne in an AirBnB. Check-in wasn’t until 2 pm and so we headed to Melbourne via You Yangs Regional park where we took a 45 min walk out to Big Rock. It was a pleasant way to kill some time before collecting the keys for our accommodation. This ended up being a bit of a ‘choose your own adventure’ as access was rather complicated and involved a few maps, lots of highlighted photos and much stress. Needless to say, once we had found the location and parked the cars, we decided we wouldn’t drive anywhere agin until departure!
The apartment was in a great location and was nice and big for the four of us and gave the option of each of the three bedrooms having either King Bed configuration or two singles so this was deemed a huge bonus for us. We spent a bit of time settling in but then ventured out to go for a bit of a walk and on to have a drink at a couple of different bars. The boys then headed off to the AFL and Colleen and I found a dinner spot at The Quarter. Melbourne was bustling with people of all ages out and about enjoying the cool but dry weather and start to the weekend. It was a good first day in Melbourne for all except, perhaps, the Collingwood supporters in our group.
Saturday 6th July
It was a very cool and grey morning, but the boys still went out for a bike ride and Colleen and I ventured out for a walk after we did some yoga. We all then headed out into Melbourne to have a look around and our first stop was at Cafe Andiamo where the other three all had breakfast. From there it was on with a mission to try and find some new jeans for David and this took us to several shops across the city but we had success in the end. That’s endeavour had taken some time so we then drifted back towards the Yarra and found another cafe for lunch, Little Collins Melbourne.
A friend of Colleen’s had mentioned some interesting art on display at the National Gallery of Victoria at Federation Square so that was the destination for our next stop but we got sidetracked along the way. Mark wanted to get an item from L’Occitane, at the entry to the Block Arcade, and this is where we were waylaid. The lovely shop assistant gave us some history of the building and how the ceiling frescoes were original and dated back to 1907 and were commissioned from a young artist for a cost of 10,000 shillings. The shop was originally owned by Singer, of sewing machine fame, and the all the shops in the arcade were originally milliners of some sort. She was a great salesperson too as we all walked out laden with good s that we had no intention of purchasing when we had first walked across the threshold.
We eventually made it to the art gallery and did find some most impressive artwork on display. It was almost 3.30pm by this stage and we were all pretty tired from our day of walking and shopping so we headed back to the apartment for a bit of a rest before heading out to dinner.
It was after 5pm before we headed back out and first stop was 55 Bar for a pre-dinner drink. Then it was on to Maccaroni Trattoria for dinner which was great. The restaurant was super busy and we seemed to be the only tourists: most looked to be local and this is a place I’d recommend if you’re ever in the area. We then walked home with a detour to check out the institution of Brunetti; a popular cafe since 1956. This is another place I’d suggest you visit. It had been a rather full day and so we then drifted home so the boys could catch up on some footy.
Sunday 7th July
It was a foggy and cold start to the day with temperatures hovering near 2 / 3° for the boys ride and for our 8 am morning walk. Needless to say, they weren’t too many people out and about. The fog lifted at around 10 am and it was then blue sky and sunshine making for a pleasant change from the last two days.
We went to Brunetti for coffee and then Brown Sugar for lunch before walking up to the game. Sadly, the result for the Swans was similar to that as for Collingwood. It didn’t dampen our spirits though and we walked back down to Southbank and found a nice restaurant, Soho, for dinner that had some fantastic live music and so that was a nice end to the ordinary game result.
It had been a lovely few days away in Melbourne but we were glad to be leaving tomorrow and escaping the cold.
