Melbourne at last....1195km later.

So we finally drive into Melbourne having survived the Southeast corner of Australia which was dull in the extreme and was sprinkled with isolated towns every 200km where you expected to see cross eyed banjo playing inbreds staring down at you from bridges. Bairnsdale had been a blessed relief from this. Within an hour of our arrival in Melbourne this is where we were with 50000 others. Name the sport?........... Top of the class if you identified Aussie Rules football. By the end of the second quarter we had sorted the rules out and Alex and Jessica wanted to go home. When asked which game they've enjoyed the best they both thought soccer because it was the shortest. For the record; the giant pom pom wavers are not cheerleaders but beer swilling fans trying to distract the opposition kickers and the game was won with Collingwood stuffing the Kangaroos.


Payback time was a 30 minute train ride and 10 minute walk to Scienceworks. Where the children had great fun sitting on giant letters.


and thinking they were as fast as Kathy Freeman. The argument over who won this race is still fiercely contested.

One of the draws of this holiday was a reunion with Sharon from teacher training days in Southampton. We managed to get together several times including an evening meal at the Hard Rock Cafe in Melbourne. After 16 years apart it was still easy to catch up on old times and have a chat. Even easier when you meet up during happy hour. Here we are looking quite happy. The children happily got on with each other too, so that was lucky!


And so that was Melbourne. Not such a tourist city as Sydney but one where you can see day to day city life looking like an easier thing to do. Skyscrapers and bisecting meandering rivers make it very photogenic and Alex will be able to impress with his "where did you first learn to ride your bike" stories with his ride along the Yarra river footpaths proving he had really cracked it. No photos unfortunately as they are all on his camera and this blog does not like it.


But if there were any doubts that this was a city for tourists then they are blown away by the obligatory observation tower. We have now done these in various cities. The significance of this shot? Our hotel pool. the sad thing was it really was that small!


OK. More sporting Trivia. Where in Melbourne would you least expect to see this sign? In true teacher style there may be lots of acceptable answers to this but you are only correct if you are thinking the same as us and say on the Melbourne Grand Prix circuit. It was three weeks after the race on what is one of only two road circuits they use and they were in the midst of reinstating sign posts and dismantling stands. For any F1 fans out there this sign is just prior to the first right hand bend after the grid. Scene of many a pile up. (When we got home Chris and Alex reinacted the race on the Game cube...which has this curcuit!)


Well here we are in the final straight. we did two laps of the circuit and it took us 20 minutes. Your average F1 car does it in about three and does not stop for a photo call in the home straight.