I’ve said in the past that I need to stop falling in love with places further and further from home. After today, Melbourne would fall into that category. It all came together for us today, beautiful weather, welcoming people and all the attractions that a city of 4.5 million people can offer. Our time in Melbourne felt short today, but that’s ok. We’ll be back a few more times and now have an understanding of the Public Transport system and the general layout of the city center.
Our day was even shorter because we were a little slow getting moving this morning. The day didn’t look all that promising at 7am when the ship was docked and cleared; it was grey and foggy and chilly. We lingered over breakfast in the Horizon Court Buffet, texting and using internet and I even placed a call to Mom using Vonage (For 1 cent per minute! Get the app!!). Boy, we are loving that free T-Mobile international plan. It’s perfect for texting and calling; downloads and uploads are very slow. Case in point: I downloaded a 158Mb audiobook today. It took the entire day, and finally finished while we were in the dining room for dinner. Using home WiFi, that’s a 90 second exercise
But I’m getting off track. We did finally dress in slacks and pullovers and walked off the ship around 9:30am, and, from that point on the day got warmer and brighter and turned out to be beautiful. We bought the Myki card in the terminal to use a Public Transport (and could use a credit card though we had been told on the ship that we couldn’t) and the two $15 AUD cards ended up costing just over $23 USD. Our rate of exchange has been improving a little every day (and I immediately got an email from Chase notifying me of the charge). We boarded Bus 109, which operates only when a ship is in port, and took it to the Melbourne Arts Center, where we walked across a bridge over the Tarra River to the Flinders Street Railway Station (thanks Leigh!).
Bike path along the Yarra River
River cruises on the Yarra
Flinder Street tram station
We caught Tram 35, a free city circle team that loops continuously around many of the city’s sights. There was a narration on the bus, so it’s kind of like a free Hop On Hop Off bus. We first did the loop (it took about 90 minutes) and then disembarked at the Docklands stop near Etihad Stadium. We have made a reservation in this area for later this cruise season, and it’s a bit scary to do that from 10000 miles away over the internet. G wondered if an area called the Docklands was safe and nice or was it freight port-y. Well, it’s a beautiful area right on a marina with yachts and restaurants and is not far from the Melbourne Aquarium.
We were impressed by all the food trucks and tiny restaurants offering every nationality of cuisine. Melbourne is a big city, and it’s a busy city, with lots of traffic, but everyone was super friendly and helpful and it’s definitely a tourist-friendly city. I’m glad we’ll be back several more times.
But we were getting warm by then. The weather just kept getting better and better, and we decided to take a tram to the bus to get back to the ship and change into shorts. We thought we might leave the ship again and walk along the boardwalk that fronts the long, sandy beach that is adjacent to the port terminal. We were getting hungry, though, and took a few minutes to have some lunch. We took our plates back to the Terrace Deck with its expansive views of the skyscrapers in downtown Melbourne. It was funny; we had been in the topical north of Queensland and couldn’t eat outside. It took going to southern Australia to find that kind of weather.
Finally! A day warm and sunny enough to have lunch on the Terrace Deck.
Vegan lunch options in the Horizon Court Buffet Steamed veggies and Asian veggie stir fry with tofu...
...followed by a big salad. In the end, it was so beautiful out there that G slept in a lounger and I, after being promised by other passengers that the Terrace Pool water temp was comfortable, changed into a swimsuit and did a bit of a water workout (I had packed my aqua gloves) for the first time. All onboard time was 3:30pm for a 4pm sail away, and we were up in Skywalkers to watch as the view of Melbourne started to fade. Melbourne is at the end of a large bay, and for the next three hours we enjoyed beautiful views on all sides. Our dinner table in the Bernini Dining Room on Deck 5 offered the best vantage point, and we enjoyed seeing all the pleasure boats, especially a sailing class of about 20 sailboats weaving in and out in circles not far from the ship.
Sail away from Melbourne viewed from SkywalkersIt was still light when we finished dinner (love spending our winters in the Southern Hemisphere!) and we strolled on the Promenade Deck, watching as the port pilot boat pulled along side the Golden Princess to pick up the harbor pilot.
The Golden Princess exited the large bay on which Melbourne is located three hours after sail away. We listened to the So Cool Quartet in the Wheelhouse Bar for a short time and then went to the Princess Theater where we sat in the just in casiest of the just in case seats. Tonight’s entertainment was comedian Simon Cotter and we assumed he was a Brit or an Aussie and that we might not get his humor but he was, in fact, a Canadian and incredibly funny. We laughed ourselves silly, and then went directly to the Explorers Lounge to listen to the Golden Princess orchestra play Big Band and swing music. When they wrapped up their set, we decided our day was done.
Tomorrow is a quasi-sea day, with scenic cruising in Oyster and Wineglass Bays from 2pm to 6pm. This is a short cruise, and both the MTG luncheon and the Captains Circle party are on the schedule (as well as the Grapevine Wine Tasting). It will be a busy day, and I’ve actually talked Mr. Dining Room into eating dinner in the Horizon Court Buffet. Did you feel the earth shift a little on its axis?