Goodbye Melbourne, the open road beckons.

Following the advice of our friendly coffee shop owners we visited Albert Park on Thursday and joined the locals in their fitness regimes by taking a power walk around the lake and all the way to St Kilda. Who needs trams, we love walking, it's not a small lake either but we're young, healthy and fit (not open for discussion so keep all comments to yourselves.) In fact the park is the home of the Melbourne F1 Grand Prix. Though having walked through the park without all the rigmarole that goes with the grand prix it's hard to imagine it.
Our route march was followed by a picnic and an afternoon lazing in the sun alongside the beach before a rather more sedate stroll back to the apartment in the evening sun.

We caught a tram on Friday and headed for Queen Victoria Market. We could have bought loads, and in fact, did and had to lug it all the way back. The stalls seem to go on forever and they sell everything, we couldn't resist the fish, and the prawns were enormous. We ended up carrying four bags each!

At 9pm that evening, after a sumptuous meal of grilled prawns, accompanied by beers and too much wine, we again boarded a tram for a return to St Kilda. We were going to experience the most memorable event in Oz so far. During the journey we were earwigging to 4 Aussies. During the conversation one girl said, 'I had to go to the chickin disc.' This was met with blank looks from the other three so she said it again. Her friends still looked bemused. After the third time, and still obviously not being understood, she clarified, 'You know, like at the airport.' At this point I was verging on hysteria, although it could have been the wine!

We then got into a conversation with a young couple who were, in his words, from 'Tas.' They mistook us for locals and asked us which stop they needed to get off at for the main beach, and we actually knew!

So, why were on the tram - we were going to see the little penguins. (They are actually called little penguins) After walking along the pier and onto the breakwater we were able to see the penguins returning to their nests in the rocks after spending the day at sea. They are cute little things and look so clumsy when they walk. I don't know how they manage to scale the rocks. They were slipping and sliding all over the place. There was a guide with an infra red torch and she showed us the nests with the fluffy babies. Awwh. You weren't allowed to use flash photography so our pictures aren't brilliant.
Though the penguins are very cute, they are quite aggressive and noisy, fighting over the 'best' rocks. The guide told us that they make the same noise whether they are mating or arguing. Hmmm!
After cooing over the penguins we joined all the other 'young' things and hit the bars. It was interesting watching backpackers drink until they collapsed in the middle of the tram tracks. Our cue to leave! We spent the weekend mooching round the shops, walking, eating and drinking, walking, spotting parakeets, walking and ... Well I'm sure you get the picture.

We set off this morning to walk through town and Christmas has arrived! Santa's helpers must have been out overnight because suddenly Melbourne has been transformed into one big Santa's grotto. Myers department store has 6 windows of animated stuff with barriers in front just Iike Maceys in New York. We explored Lygon Street, the Italian quarter. It was gorgeous, all pizza restaurants, coffee shops and shoes, a little bit of Italy in the middle of trendy Melbourne. Oh, the smell of that coffee...

We're all packed up now, ready to say bye-bye to Melbourne and begin our road trip along the Great Ocean Road. See you.

PS - Sorry for lack of pics but for some reason they wouldn't upload, I'll try again later.

- Posted by Jim and Annie using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Albert Road, Melbourne