Tuesday, October 1, 2024
We have landed at the Park Hyatt Hotel in downtown Melbourne. The sky is clear but cold. The temp is 50 but feels colder. We have moved South from summer to spring but it feels like winter.
Last night we had dinner at a place called Nomad. It was very full of young, upscale people eating unusual food. We had dishes of bone marrow and flatbread, fried green olives, kingfish crudo, lamb neck pie, and Jerusalem artichoke salad. All very tasty. Apparently Melbourne is famous for its food and restaurants abound. Martina booked us into three places and now I can see why. There would be no getting into popular eateries without a reservation.
Melbourne is the coastal capital of the southeastern Australian state of Victoria. The city was founded in 1835 and the population is 6.7 million. Currently the country population is 27M and 90% of the people live near the coast. Melbourne was the capital of the country from 1901 to 1913 when the capital shifted to Canberra. During the Victoria Gold Rush of 1851, Melbourne became the richest and largest city in the world. In 1956 it hosted the Olympics and invited 150 Italian chefs to the city to bring good coffee and food to stimulate activity. It worked. It is now a coffee and food Mecca and today 60% of the city’s residents were born outside the country.
Daniel Platt, the owner of the travel agency, Localing, and our guide for the day, drove us around many areas in the city as well as taking us on a walking tour. We learned that the downtown is planted with plane trees for beauty and shade.
He pointed out the Manchester Unity Building that is modeled after the Tribune Building in Chicago.
The boulevards are 99 feet wide and allow for the free tram system to function well. In between boulevards are 66ft lanes and 33ft allies that provide for smaller more intimate businesses and restaurants to flourish. Having three sizes of streets works well and is a pleasure for everyone.
More than 60% of all businesses in the state of Victoria have only 1-6 employees. Together they create a robust economy. One alley in particular, was full of permitted graphite art.
Seuss art store. It was known at the Block Arcade during the gold rush years as gold diggers would bring their winnings down the block to the bank, then walk the fancy shops on the block again buying goods with their remaining winnings. Three times more gold was found in Victoria than in California, the Yukon and Colorado combined.
Then Dan showed us the popular and dynamic public space called Federation Square. Under the steel shell is a geometrically patterned glass and steel walled atrium. The building is used for art exhibits, performances and a multitude of public events.
We stopped for lunch at a fusion Asian restaurant called Supernormal, that happened to be across the street from Nomad, where we had dinner the night before. Dan ordered a variety of dishes including: Korean rice cakes, prawn dumplings, duck leg in plum sauce and a lobster roll.
Since 2011, Melbourne has been voted the World’s most livable city almost every year.
After lunch Dan drove us all over the city looking at different business districts and neighborhoods from the relatively poor to the super rich. The city is quite large, flat and very spread out. Some neighborhoods front on the ocean and many others take advantage of being on or near the Yarra River, that runs through the heart of the city.
It is a very pleasant city. No wonder residents we spoke to like living here. Even the cold morning warmed up during the day.
Our dinner location was a short Uber away at a place called Carlton Wine Bar. It was small like the other places we have eaten in Melbourne, but packed. We would not have gotten in without an advanced reservation. Martina has thought of everything.
As we were early, we sat at the bar. Our first event was signature cocktails. Normally I pass on fancy drinks, but I could not resist getting a rhubarb daiquiri. It was so delicious that I had a second one. Over the top for me. We were treated very nicely and ordered a few small dishes rather than a big meal. The food is very different, but interesting and tasty. One dish we ordered was a pasta that had rigatoni, white beans, cavolo Nero, pan grattato, and pecorino. Enjoy looking up descriptions of the terms 😘. There was also fabulous potato focaccia bread, we could not resist. It did not take long before we were both full. Again I forgot to take photos.
We repacked for an overnight on The Great Ocean Road, where we expect it to be cold, had dinner in a Japanese restaurant called Kazuki. We were served a Michelin style meal with 6 small courses. One course included Ox tail and another was duck.
We both liked the oxtail and the duck. I liked the ice cream and cardamom.
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
Up early and repacked. We will be traveling overnight on the Great Ocean Road, so we are not giving up our room as we will back in it tomorrow night. We are taking a small overnight bag as there is limited room on the helicopter we will be using to return from the ocean tomorrow. We were soon with Simon Greenfield, our new guide for the Great Ocean Road trip. Before leaving the city we stopped at the South Melbourne Market to check it out. It is a huge facility full of many individual vendors peddling every food imaginable plus flowers and other goods.
He says people like to shop in it because it is very social as well as providing really fresh products. We enjoyed walking around and indulging in some coffee and focaccia. Simon and Mark scarfed several exceedingly fresh oysters for breakfast.
Back in the car, we headed south out of the city toward the very bottom of the country.`
Within an hour we were at Bell’s Beach, the beginning of the Great Ocean Road and a beach that provides great surfing. When we were there the waves were hitting 12 feet.
No place for beginners. After watching the half dozen surfers in the very cold water awhile, we continued along the coast road to Angelsea and Lorne,
where we passed under the Road arch and stopped for lunch. The Great Ocean Road is 170 miles long.
I had “gummy shark”, fish and chips.
On a short walk about, we got some good bird photos: a galah, which is a member of the parrot family, a cockatoo, and an Australian magpie. Then we drove through Apollo Bay and on into the temperate rainforest near Cape Otway. The rain forest was quite lovely with huge eucalyptus trees and ferns and many other flowering plants. Some of the trees were close to 300 feet tall. The latitude here is 43 degrees south, compared to our latitude of 39 north. Not surprising that the spring here is like our spring. Meanwhile the temperature is a pleasant 68F.
Simon drove us around looking for koala bears. We found a couple but couldn’t get them to look at us. Finally one looked our way and here it is.
Back in Appolo Bay, we checked into our room for the night. It was a 2 block walk to the east facing beach and an 2 block walk to an Italian restaurant, so we were set. Met Simon for dinner, had a somewhat familiar puttanesca and went to bed early.
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Got up at 5:30 to see the sunrise in the east over the Bass Strait/Southern Ocean. It was a clear, cloudless morning with an uninteresting sunrise, but we were there to see it.
Simon knew a lot of people in town and introduced us to the owner of the local bakery where we hung out awhile.
Back on the road we head for the famous 12 apostles. There are not 12 any more, but they live up to the hype about them.
About 3pm he drops us off at the heliport and a pilot flies us back to Melbourne. We thought the flight would end at the airport, but the pilot surprised us by landing downtown on a city helipad next to the river. It was not far from our hotel. Made us feel unreasonably important. Unfortunately, both our phones were dead at the moment, so no photos.
Back in our hotel, we repacked for Tasmania, expecting it to be cold. We also packed up a box of things we will not need, such as our snorkles and masks, and had the hotel send the box home. Helped free up some space.
Then we went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Kazuki. They served us a 6 course Michelin style meal, which was good and especially interesting. Mark loved the ox tail and duck. I loved the dessert.
We Ubered back to the hotel, enjoyed the city view from our 19th floor windows and went to bed. Tomorrow we start a new adventure in Tasmania.
Adventures with Julia 