Victoria

Today was the big day! Visiting Albert Park, traditionally the hosting venue of the first Formula 1 race of the season. Machiel was so excited he was already awake at 5. Or who knows, maybe he really had slept enough after 7 hours like he claimed 😏 Susanne wasn't aware of that, so we actually only left the apartment at 10. A short tram ride brought us close to the park, after which 5.3km of walking were waiting for us. The preparations for the race in just 3 weeks were fully going on. That was nice as it meant that it was largely closed for normal traffic so we could walk just on the track itself. We entered the circuit just before turn 13 in the 3rd sector. It was interesting to see the poor state much of the asphalt and kerbs were in. Not sure if that's still getting some maintenance in the next 3 weeks. The gravel traps weren't ready yet either, but the gravel was already delivered. We tried to sneak into the pit entrance, but were unfortunately stopped by some security people.

Walking onto the start/finish straight there was a supercar meetup of some sorts, with some of them also driving on parts of the straight being loud and looking expensive. We continued into sector 1, where the usual road cuts out a part of the circuit, which in everyday life functions as a parking lot. In sector 2 we spoke to some painters who were painting parts of the Pirelli logo on the wall, turns out they had to do hundreds of them. We continued but it was getting tough as it was very sunny and around 25 degrees. Before completing our lap we had a nap under the shadow of a tree along the back straight, right next to the golf course. After that we only had the challenging turn 11-12 complex to go, which didn't look as impressive because they straighten it a bit for the normal road traffic. Laptime: around 2,5 hours, including a nap.

Most of the afternoon we spend in the apartment before heading out to St. Kilda for the evening. We walked along the beach boulevard and had dinner at a nice vegan restaurant.Read more