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Albert Heights Apartments, Melbourne, Australia.

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The last three days sped by like the wind that was blowing in the chilly streets of Melbourne. After Sunday’s short lived heat wave, we have had cold and rain for two days, and today just cold. That did not stop us from enjoying what the city has to offer.

On Monday morning we took the free tourist sightseeing bus around the city center to see what is out there. We got off after 30 minutes in the southern part of downtown and visited an art museum. We then crossed the bridge back to downtown and found a nice sushi place were local business people flock at lunchtime. We escaped from the rain by exploring the small covered allies that the city has prepared just for us. They usually have interesting little shops and cafes, so we got our afternoon caffeine fix as well.

Yesterday morning we headed off to Queen Victoria Market, an institution, where people flock to buy fresh food, clothing, and all sorts of chachkes. It is a more civilized version of Shuk HaCarmel, but the basic idea is the same. Before exploring the market we sat down in a nice café for breakfast and Orr ravished a plate of mini pancakes. After the market we stopped by Flagstaff Park for some playground action.

For lunch we had a special treat. We dined in a school, a chef school. The William Anglis school has a bistro serving lunch prepared by soon to be chefs, and served by soon to be waitresses. The food was mostly good, the price a joke. The Malay soup prepared by Hanoch, our Israeli man in Melbourne was the best dish hands down. After lunch we crawled around downtown for a bit and returned to the hotel.

Today we walked around Fitzroy in the morning and headed to the Melbourne Museum which has superb activities for kids. Just our luck, today is International Child Day, and half of Melbourne’s mums and kiddies came in as well. There were many additional activities administered by volunteer staff and to be honest it was quite hectic. The kids loved it and after lunch outside the museum we returned for some more.

Lunch was taken a few blocks away from the museum on Lygos street, which is a little Italy, lined with cafes, ristorantes, and gelaterias. The whole street has a nice flair to it and the food we ate at Universita Ristorante was delicious.

After returning to the museum playground and then reentering to play with playdough, the wee weary Weingarten warriors returned to the hotel to watch Shrek and pack up. Tomorrow we pick up a motorhome and continue our adventures in Victoria.

Good Night,

-Hemi

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 4:13 am and is filed under Australia, Big Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.