Melbourne Day 2

A whole day in Melbourne today - our first day without driving anywhere for a while. We began with a fantastic breakfast at Arbory overlooking the Yarra River. Despite the winter temperatures, the sunshine made the city gleam as it towered over the flock of rowers out on the water.

Hoping for a tour of Parliament, we caught the old-school city tram, forgetting however that Australia keeps the strangest working hours - everything seems to be open from 10 until 4 on some days of the week. Today, being Saturday and therefore clearly not a tourist day, both Parliament and the Treasury museum were closed. So instead we popped up to the 35th floor of the Sofitel for striking views over Melbourne.

Continuing on foot, we wound out way north to the Exhibition Hall and through streets of amazing two-storey Victorian houses with beautiful ironwork stood side-by-side with huge skyscrapers. This all led us to the Queen Victoria Market, a huge craft/fruit & veg/deli/wine/fashion and about everything else market. In anticipation of our planned afternoon jaunt, we bought a couple of hats before grabbing lunch. Sushi Hut had a fab selection of sushi and Ben, being a foodie, wanted to try to inari of jellyfish, baby squid and octopus.

Back on a packed tram we headed west to the docklands and bought a couple of tickets for the AFL (Aussie Rules Football) match that evening from the Etihad Stadium. In the docklands shops, there was a huge array of art collective shops and 'Dodgy Paper' sold fabulous handmade paper made from...well just about anything. Some from jigsaw puzzles, billboards and even a stack made from pulped 'The Art of the Deal' books by Trump! My most exciting find of the day though was a travel but with a tea strainer built in for just $5 from Typo 😊

The AFL match 'bounced off' at 4.35pm and we watched the home team Essendon play the Western Australian team of Fremantle. With no idea of the rules, or even match length, we settled in with some beers for what turned out to be the best part of two-and-a-half hours.

We walked back afterwards, stopping for a lovely pizza dinner at the Metropolitan Hotel before finally heading back to our own hotel.Read more