Melbourne, Australian for sports capital

After all the nature and small town time, it was nice to get into a big, bustling city, albeit a very clean and green one. We drove into town and met Ryno, who we got connected to through Elya and Ryan Moore (see Krakow, Budapest, and Rome). The Rynocerous is a super-friendly, midwestern (from Wisconsin), iron man, ex-pat who open up his home to us and made the weeklong stay incredible. He showed us around all of Melbourne and took us to some great bars and restaurants. We shared many an interesting and lively conversation over a beer. We really hope to stay in touch and meet again back in Australia, in the States, or anywhere else for that matter.

Home base was in a neighborhood called Richmond, which is to the East of the CBD (Central Business District aka Downtown for the Americans). It is right across from the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Gardens, or The G for those into brevity), which is a large area of sports complexes that include the Cricket, Soccer, Aussie Football, Basketball, Netball (apparently the dumbest sport ever invented) and Tennis stadiums. There is also the Melbourne Cup, which is the biggest horse race, and the race is a state holiday. We need to petition to have the Super Bowl played on Monday and declared a national holiday.

In the heart of the city is Federation Square with buildings with this crazy cubist-like design. There is a big screen where they play major sporting events. It happened that in our time in Australia there was The Ashes, which is the test match between England and Australia. Vince tried to learn as much about cricket as possible, but it is still confusing. The greatest takeaway is that it is a lot like baseball, lots of stats, intricate strategy, and extremely slow. To the left is St. Peter’s Cathedral. Here is a picture of the interior:

We walked through the Fitzroy Garden, one of the almost endless stretch of parks and gardens in Melbourne. This park, like all the others, is in incredible condition. Some of the more notable features in the park are a miniature town of Tudor cottages, the Fairy Tree that is decorated with fairies and other random things, Captain Cook’s cottage (pictured above), and a Conservatory (pictured below).

Ryno’s friend Liz joined us and we really enjoyed getting to know her over or stay. She is a fellow triathlete/iron woman, and is really silly with a great sense of humor. We passed by this slow flowing water wall in the middle of the city, along with the following bronze dog-like creature statue.

After getting some delicious gelato (it was 108 that day!) in the Carlton district, we passed by the Melbourne Museum and the pictured Royal Exhibition Building built in 1880.

We spent New Year’s Eve on the banks of the Yarra River that winds through the city. We met up with another of Elya and Ryan’s friends, Anetta and Roger, both really awesome people. The banks were a cool scene with good energy. The fireworks show was very interesting with fireworks being set off from the tops of the skyscrapers, definitely never seen anything like it. However, Americans know how to do fireworks right: bigger, longer, and better.

Ryno and Liz took us out to the Yarra Valley, a beautiful landscape of mountains and vineyards. After a delicious breakfast in a town called Healesville we visited a couple wineries including Yering Station, which is the oldest winery in Australia founded in 1859.

The Botanic Gardens (or the Tan since Aussies shorten everything) is amazing. There are series of different gardens, open spaces, ponds, and pavilions. They also setup a large screen to show movies under the stars, but at $20 a ticket, we passed.

This is the MCG, the cricket stadium, which also houses the Sports Museum. Right near it is Rod Laver stadium and a bunch of tennis court that they were getting ready for the upcoming Australian Open.

Flinders Street Station is the main station, along with the newer Southern Cross station, of the CBD. Public transportation in Melbourne is excellent with the various trains and trams that they have crisscrossing the city. From Richmond it was a 10 minute trip to Flinders.

We walked around Southbank, a nice area of shops and restaurants along the southern bank of the Yarra River.

The War Memorial is an imposing looking building with some great exhibits and memorials. We climbed the top and got some great views back onto the city.

We traveled to the top of the Eureka Tower, which they claim to be the tallest viewing platform in the Southern hemisphere (we have since heard some conflicting claims). One cool feature (of course on our budget we didn’t do it) is something called The Edge, which is a glass cube to pushes out from the side of the building, and the glass floor cracks while unsuspecting people are in it. We did however get these bird’s eye views:

This is looking south out to the ocean and Port Melbourne.

A view of the CBD.

The MCG. You can almost make out Ryno’s place right behind the Soccer Stadium on the very right.

Anetta and Roger invited us over to their place for dinner out in Port Melbourne, which is a nice stretch along the coast. We got there a little earlier and walked along the beach. In the distance on the right you can see the Spirit of Tasmania at port. It is the ferry that takes you to Tasmania, which is apparently amazing, but we will have to do it another trip. Anetta cooked up a fantastic lasagna and we had a great time chatting with them and their friends.

We visited Victoria Market, a large area of indoors and covered markets selling everything from meat, produce, and fresh food to jewelry, clothing, and Uggs. Megan behaved herself and only bought an inexpensive wooden ring.

We took a tour of the Melbourne Goal, an old prison where a lot of their famous prisoners were held and hung, including the infamous Ned Kelly. We learned all about the history of the prison and daily life and stories of the prisoners. We spent a lot more time there than we thought we would, just so many cool stories and interesting exhibits.

On the second floor there is the gallows where from a large beam a noose hangs and below it is a trap door that opens with a big lever. The prisoner and the executioner spend the night on opposite ends of the gallows the night before the execution. Ned Kelly was hung here and his supposedly famous last words were “Such is life”.

Also included on the Goal tour was a reenactment of the Ned Kelly Trial played by audience members. Vince played the part of a police officer that gave testimony against Ned Kelly.

We also got a tour of the Watch House, a holding cell where people are held for hours to 30 days. It was still in use up until the late 90’s, when they switched to more local prescient holding cells. Males and females were separated by the warden and then were locked up into cells. We were shortly let out and shown the tiny exercise yard and a cool padded cell.

Portland

Portland is a cute town, and the western-most point that we reached in Australia. We stayed in a really cute seaside inn. This old church is in the center of town.

When we got in, we drove to nearby Port Nelson. First, we went for a short walk to the lighthouse and along the coast.

A short drive away, we found the Enchanted Forest – with some enchanted views.

After being enchanted, our final stop was at the Yellow Rock.

The next day, we went out to Cape Bridgewater and took a really long hike, again, on the coast.

We saw this boat get tugged onto shore by a tractor – kinda cool.

There was a wind farm along the way, which we saw a lot of in Australia.

We reached the top of the highest coastal cliff in Victoria, at 130 meters high. At the very end of the hike was a colony of fur seals, playing in the water and sunbathing.

Our last stop in Cape Bridgewater, on the western side of the cape, were the blow holes and the misnamed “Petrified Forest.”

At the time of day we saw the blow holes (low tide), they were more noisy than visually cool – the waves force air into voids in the rocks, and the air gets compressed and violently pushes the water back out – there’s a loud boom and some spray. Very cool to hear, not as impressive in a picture.

Next was the “Petrified forest” – which is a mis-nomer. Originally, it was thought that these tree-like stumps were part of a forest that became stone. Modern science has shown that when water drained into the rock, it formed “tubes” of even harder rock – and these used to be under ground. Then, the wind has eroded the rest of the softer surrounding rock away, leaving these previously underground “tree trunks” above ground. Pretty cool geological feature.

Just another gorgeous day in Australia!

Great Ocean Road, a road along the ocean that’s great.

From Phillip Island we passed through Melbourne on our way to the Great Ocean Road, a breath-taking drive along the southern coast of Australia. It is a winding road along cliffs, beaches, and buffs with amazing ocean views, out-of-this world rock formations, and beautiful bays and beaches that run up into lush mountainous forests. It was built as a memorial to Victorians who served in WWI and was competed in 1932.

Near the start of the eastern part of Great Ocean Road is Bell’s Beach, a famous surfing spot. The windy conditions made it perfect for about a dozen kite-surfers out on the waves.

The winding, hilly road amazes you around every turn and over every crest as you feast on gorgeous views. We continued on what seemed like a lifetime of ocean views and passed under The Great Ocean Road Monument.

We crossed over the Big Hill, which was a major obstacle during the construction. It is a BIG hill, with a shear drop off to the ocean below, and the view over the top is spectacular.

We stopped briefly in the town of Lorne and stepped out onto a pretty beach. The pathway on the left is part of the Great Ocean Walk which is a trial that stretches along the coast and along about half of The Great Ocean Road.

A random lookout along the road. It had started to get cold and windy, so we quickly ran back to the Yaris.

This is the view from the beach in Port Campbell where we stayed in a holiday park just down the road. There is literally one block to the town, but we managed to get decent fish and chips there. There were a few kids that jumped off the small pier and were boogie boarding in the waves crashing into the cliffs.

These are the famous Twelve Apostles, a series of free-standing pillars of limestone in the ocean. They were formed by erosion that left these amazing rock formations. There used to be another apostle in the foreground, but it toppled over at some point in the recent past. They are huge and the setting is stunning.

This is Loch Ard Gorge, which is a gorge carved out by the sea. There is a beautiful beach split into two sections by the rocky cliff and the atmosphere down there with the waves crashing is awesome.

This is a blowhole caused by air trapped in the rocks that shoots water out when the pressure of the waves crash against it. Pretty amazing site and the sound is earth rattling.

This is London Bridge, another crazy looking rock formation out in the ocean. Originally there was another archway where the gap is, but in 1990 it crumbled. Two people who got stranded on the island tip after the collapse, which might ruin your day, but be a great story.

The Bay of Islands is a bay with islands (as you can tell, Aussies are very descriptive in their naming of places). More of the stratified rock islands in a sweeping cliff-side bay.

West of Great Ocean road is a dairy region and we stopped by a cheese factory where we were able to sample some of the locally made cheese. This factory made primarily cheddar and some excellent blends like pepper-garlic and sundried tomato-basil, which we took way with us. There was a little museum attached with all kinds of dairy farm equipment and tools. The machine pictured above is one of the first automatic milking machines in Australia. Megan also tried her hand at churning butter.