We drove to Melbourne (about 9 hour drive) on Thursday and stayed until Sunday (I decided this was the last time I am driving long distance pregnant! - which by the way, lasted only a couple of days since we did a lot of driving in Cairns). Since we arrived late Thursday evening, we checked into the hotel and went to a local bar down the street. The next day, we drove along the Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean Road is a popular tourist attraction near Melbourne that extends down the coast. It is actually dedicated to soldiers killed during WWI thus making it the world's largest war memorial. Along the way, we passed small coastal towns, beaches, national parks, and spectacular views.
Lorne Pier
Great Otway National Park
The highlight of the drive is the Twelve Apostles which are rock formations formed from erosion of the limestone.
(luckily we didn't see any!)
Australia is never subtle with their warnings!
What?? What?? I didn't realize this was a thing ...
After the Great Ocean Road, we drove back to Melbourne. That night, we went out to Southbank for dinner and at nice seafood restaurant and then we went out to a bar at the casino (not sure why the casino there has such a nightlife but it is where many people told us to go out).
The next day we explored Melbourne itself. These pictures are driving into the city. We also found that Melbourne had a lot of "road sculptures."
The first stop that morning was the Royal Botanic Gardens.
= no fun?? Very different from Sydney Botanic gardens where there are a lot of runners and people playing games on the grassy areas!
From the Botanic Gardens, we walked to the city. Melbourne fancies themselves the "Sports Capital of the World" (Adam and I are skeptical) so they have many stadiums and arenas.
Often, Melbourne is compared to a European city. One of the reasons are the little shops and cafes along the alleyways. One of the top things people told us to do while we were in Melbourne is to stop in one such café for a famous cup of coffee (they claim they have the best). Unfortunately, we were severely disappointed when three places denied us coffee because we were either not ordering any food or the wait was too long for takeaway. What?? Really, you are going to deny a customer because the wait is too long? Melbourne lost a lot of points in my book for this (and it didn't help that I was extremely tired from the day before and was really looking forward to that cup of joe!).
Next, we went to Chinatown where we (obviously I did not partake) grabbed a beer at Hofbrauhaus ... yes, digest that little bit of information there! And then went next door to have dumplings.
That night, we went to St. Kilda Beach to see the penguins. There is a touristy place about an hour or so south of Melbourne where everyone goes to see the penguins but the wonderful bartender at our hotel informed us that there are penguins that come out at St. Kilda beach only 15 minutes from our hotel! Since the penguins don't come out until sunset, we went to a bar on the beach to have a drink and dinner before the penguins came out.
Altogether, Melbourne was nice but definitely not my favorite out of all the Australian cities and towns that I have been too. Next stop ... Cairns!
