Melbourne
Friday, May 2nd, 2008While in Melbourne we were lucky enough to stay with Kim and Jim and their 2 Border Collies, Mellon and Brock, who live in Rosanna, a suburb of Melbourne. Kim is Eero’s godfather Dave’s cousin. We had a nice dinner with them on the first night we arrived.
On our first day in Melbourne we went downtown and to the Queen Victoria Market, then took the tourist shuttle for a ride. The tourist shuttle took us past the Shrine of Rembrance, the Botanic Gardens, Federation square, the Sports precinct which has about 9 sports venues (including Olympic Park), the 88-floor residential Eureka tower amongst other sights of the city.
Kim and Jim took us to see an AFL game (Aussie Rules Football) between the St Kilda Saints and Essendon Bombers. We picked up on the rules of the game pretty quick and we both really enjoyed watching the game. The final score was 123-87 for St Kilda. They should bring the sport to Canada!
The next day we took the train back downtown and went back to the market to get some crocodile sausages for supper. They were pretty good. We also went out to St Kilda Beach and walked out the pier where there is a protected little penguin colony as well as a water rat colony.
On our last day in the Melbourne area, Kim and Jim took us for a scenic drive through the Yarra Valley. We stopped at two (Warramate Wines and Domaine Chandon) of the many wineries in the Yarra Valley and sampled some good wines. On the drive back we stopped in Healesville for some delicious meat pies at the Beechworth bakery.