Melbourne

After Sydney (where we stuffed up again trying to get out of the city - we may have the record for going over the harbour bridge so many times!!!) we headed down the NSW south coast. Stayed the night in Bega (of the cheese fame) - very very cold there!!. Then headed over the Victoria border. Some lovely countryside on the way - lots of rolling hills and forests with winding narrow roads. Stayed the night at Warragul then headed down to the Mornington Peninsula to have a look around there. Drove down the coast hugging Port Phillip Bay through Rosebud,Dromona, Rye, stopping at Sorrento. Stayed the night here - a delightful town, it is a popular summer destination for Melburnians. It was very quiet when we were there and the townspeople told us you can't move there in the summer and there is a permanent traffic jam in the main street. Lovely coastline - further along we had a look at Portsea and a bit further on is Cheviot Beach where PM Harold Holt disappeared. ( for all you history nuts!!!)
Off to Melbourne on Wednesday, arrived OK with NO traffic dramas at Quest Beaumont Apartments at Kew Junction. Staying here until Tuesday morning. Comfy apartment with a kitchenette, which is good, as we had been staying in motels for the last 3 nights with no cooking facilities.
Easy to get into town here - tramstop for No.48 just a few metres away.
Thursday we went on the MCG tour. For a cricket and footy fanatic like me it was blissorama!!! We got to walk on the ground - albeit the artificial turf where the dug outs are. Then off to some of the myriad of rooms - the changerooms used by Richmond the week before, the umpires and drug testing rooms, medical rooms, media rooms, the cricket team viewing area before they go out to bat, the Long room of the Melbourne Cricket Club - all the cricket areas have a lot of memorabilia and statistics. It was absolutely fantastic. But wait, there's more! Afterwards we went to the sports museum (in the MCG) this was really fascinating and very interactive. Again the cricketing memorabilia and information was great, so was the footy. They had separate histories of all the AFL clubs listing their premierships, brownlow medallists, norm smith medalists etc. Of course, the dockers list just contained an anchor.......sorry eileen!!!!
If anybody is a cricket and footy nut like me, I recommend the MCG tour and a visit to the museum afterwards -the tour took about an hour and a half and we spent over an hour in the museum as well.
Afterwards we went shopping at the DFO store next to Southern Cross Station.
Friday we headed into town to spend time at the Queen Victoria Markets. Whilst we like the general markets, I really like the food markets inside. The choice and quality of the meats, seafood,cheeses, delicatessens is overwhelming. It is a foodies' paradise. And the prices are better than Perth and the range is much better too. The presentation of food is top class and the sellers are good to talk to.