The sea has calmed down so things are back to what we consider to be normal – other than a nip in the air of course, as we have yet to head north. In previous years, once out of Sydney, we have headed north to Darwin, so heading almost due west means no change in the warmth until we hit Perth.
The ship docked on time for an 8am start for some. We had a more leisurely start to the day and walked off about 9:40. No queues, no formalities, no problems.
We had intended catching the tram into the city centre, but once In the port building, there was a HoHo stand. Catching the tram and buying a travel card for the day apparently worked out at about $19 (I stand corrected if that is wrong) but the HoHo bus – both routes, worked out at $25 ahead.
It was explained very clearly that they would run a shuttle back to the ship at 3pm, from the city, or, if we boarded the #2 route no later than 1:45pm, it would arrive at the port gates in time.
From the ship to the port gates and on to the HoHo bus was about 500m and the bus was due to leave at 10am anyway. It was extremely cold on the top deck, so e scuttle inside after about ten minutes.
You have to be a bit careful here in terms of timing, as Port Melbourne is on the #2, St Kilda route, which only runs every two hours, but somehow or other, they had put on extra buses to act as a shuttle into the city, to stop #1, outside the Atrium, near the Flinders St railway station. Once there, we had a 20 minute wait before the City tour started, so we just hopped off to the Sunday craft market. Within the Atrium building there was a magnificent Holden, promoting an exhibition of Australia’s car history. We didn’t really have the time to go into the exhibition.
We did most of the route. There is much to do and see in Melbourne and one day isn’t anywhere near long enough for this fantastic city. We were feeling peckish and still a little chilled, and we skipped the busy and massive market and got off a couple of stops later in the City.
After a warming coffee and a slab of spinach and feta borek, at one of the many tiny eateries, we had just enough time to walk up to stop #1 to board the last St Kilda HoHo. (Last for us to get back in time.)
A pleasant drive back, which included Albert Park and St Kilda of course, with another iconic Luna Park, but no time to get off and enjoy the art market - or the famous St Kilda cake shops.
Back at the port, we raided the local store and bought 6 bottle of cider (for me $16.99) and a chocolate bar (for Paula…). Maybe in Perth, we’ll catch a properly priced food/drink outlet. There apparently is an outlet just a short walk away, but we didn’t know that. The ship’s cider is the identical sized bottles (not large cans of Strongbow as last time) of Bulmers - but at $6.75 plus 15% service charge.
The next door fish and chip shop was doing a roaring trade, but we weren’t tempted – especially when we saw the prices.
An easy walk back onto the ship, and through the scanner, though Paula’s knee was giving her a bit of trouble for a while. An atrium cuppa on board, just as it started to get really busy with returning passengers. It was interesting watching who got caught at the scanner. Only 2. One with what looked like a hair drier and the purser (Angus), who forgot he had his keys in his pocket!
The pre-dinner show was Nathan Foley, a singer musician who we had seen before and who puts on a decent act, so about an 8/10 from me.
Dinner, I opted for two mains – the prawns as a starter then a very nice pork chop.
After dinner, the Vista performer was billed as a top NZ comedian/mimic – but we’d never heard of him. His act was what we’d call observational as opposed to joke telling and he did a great job of taking the mickey out of several countries (including NZ and Australia) with a particular emphasis on the accents. It was decidedly cold in the lounge. For his first show, that was worth a 9/10 on my rating scale, but we know from experience that most performers put on their best show first, but few comedians can carry an equally good second show. We’ll have to see. A chat to Simon, plus Sarah and DD (Deputy Cruise Director) Victoria afterwards then a late bed, but the clocks are back 1 hour overnight.
Three sea days ahead, so they will probably just morph into one blog post.
So far, internet access has been OK from the cabin, but as usual, I tend to look at emails on line, shove them into a directory for later – and dump the spam. Few pictures to add to the blog at this stage, as I didn’t take many in Melbourne anyway and apart from formal night tomorrow, with the obligatory ‘smart’ photograph (and maybe some food), there won’t be too much to record just yet.
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