Exploring Albury/Wodonga

The last time Maggie and I had been in Albury was more than 47 years ago. We had been married for about 2 days and were on our way to Canberra to spend our honeymoon.

Of course the world of travel was a bit different way back then. The only resource we had to plan our accommodation was the RACV Accommodation Guide. There was no Internet, no mobile phones, no email, no GPS to help guide our way. We really were on our own.

After looking at maps and studying the brief descriptions of each motel that the guide book offered, I chose a place in Albury for our overnight stay and received a printed voucher to present on our arrival.

We left Melbourne with our little Renault 10 loaded to the rooftop with about everything we owned at that time. Although I had promised Maggie that we would have a lovely place to stay after the long drive, we soon discovered that the place did not live up to the description. The room was tiny, the bed situated right under the front window, only partly protected by an inadequate flimsy curtain. Every time sometime walked past the room (which was often), we felt like we were meant to say hello to them. It was an uncomfortable night.

When our plans were made to spend a couple of nights in Wodonga as part of this trip, we were obviously curious to see if anything had changed in almost half a century. We soon found that the city was nothing like how we remembered it. Albury/Wodonga is now a thriving metropolis with very well-developed infrastructure. The shopping centres were modern, the coffee shops welcoming and the traffic appeared to flow smoothly. In addition we found a wonderful rage of beautiful parklands and bike paths to explore. Our main regret was that we did not have enough time there to do the place justice. If we repeat this trip next year, all agreed that we should include a day of cycling around the city.

And as for our motel of 1974 ? To our surprise we found that it is still there. In fact it had not even changed all that much, apart from a sparkling new paint job. Apparently, such "retro motels" are now all the rage. It even has a huge hotel and restaurant added to the complex. But will we ever stay there again ? I really doubt it.

On the other hand, we all left with very positive feelings for the city and a desire to return well before another 47 years had elapsed.Read more