Australia – Melbourne

From Adelaide it was a short flight to Melbourne with Qantas Airlines staying consistent in departing a half hour late. However, they always serve decent food, so we overlook the delays. As Melbourne is the second largest city in Australia, the airport is quite large and a distance from the downtown area where our hotel is located. We are staying at The Langham, an elegant hotel situated next to the Yarra River. Melbourne is the capital of the Australian state of Victoria and the second most populous city in Australia.

As we arrived midafternoon, we immediately checked into our corner room with a wonderful view of the river and immediate downtown.

As good as the daytime view is, however, the nighttime view is spectacular!

For our first evening out I had us going to the suburb of Fitzroy to The Black Pearl, a touted bar, and then to dinner at a nearby restaurant Tbbq. The Black Pearl was hardly as expected having seen its better days, but the bartender was charming and knowledgeable. The restaurant was a very short walk away, and they were expecting us. As we entered, I wondered if I had made a mistake with this location and reservation. However, our server was great, and the barbecue was as good as any we have ever eaten!

The next morning we had the buffet breakfast at the hotel with any breakfast food desired available! The Langham is an older established hotel, which allows for its convenient location, and it is immaculately kept and updated with all the modern conveniences.

Late morning we ventured across the river to the Tram Stop where we took the City Tram 35, which does a circle of the Melbourne City Business District with a running commentary of the sights/buildings and information about the city. Did you know that Melbourne has the largest Greek population outside of Greece and Cyprus? We didn’t either! Melbourne also has a large number of Indians from India and Chinese and, of course, the indigenous Aboriginal population, although they are a small percentage of the total Australian population.

Because it was so much colder than expected, primarily because of the wind, we had a more leisurely afternoon but did venture to the Southbank shopping center adjacent to the hotel. In the evening we had dinner reservations at Eureka 89, the restaurant on the 89th floor of the Eureka Tower. The tables are immediately next to the thick glass windows with amazing views.

Looking down (above photo) and then looking up in photo below.

Fortunately the weather was much better on Tuesday with some sunshine, and, more importantly, no wind! Following another bountiful breakfast, we took a river cruise with the picture above one of the many bridges we passed. We also were reminded that Australia hosted the Olympics back in 1956 as we went past structures build specifically for the Games.

Melbourne is known for its lanes and arcades, and wanting to contribute a bit to the local economy, we ventured out to explore. We made it through the Royal Arcade and the Block Arcade, but not before making a few purchases, before walking back to the hotel.

Wanting a bit slower pace we ventured next door to the Southbank Promenade to the Hacienda Restaurant for dinner. The food was excellent, and we enjoyed watching a fellow diner being crowned with a sombrero as Happy Birthday was sung to him.

Following is a map of Australia so that you can follow our trip. We are going around Australia counter clockwise, having started in Cairns, then Darwin, then Perth, then Adelaide and now in Melbourne.