Funky Melbourne

I've been catching some Flack (ahem, Stephanie) about not writing about our recent trip to Victoria and South Australia, so I'll begin today with a post about our sojourn in Melbourne (pronounced Mel-bun by the locals) last week. As you can see from the photo, Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Jack have been visiting from the US for 3 weeks, so we decided to use the opportunity of their visit to do some exploring of this great continent country. Melbourne is an easy (and cheap!) one hour plane ride from Sydney, so we stopped there first and spent 2 nights in a great apartment right in downtown. The architecture is amazing, with lots of colonial buildings juxtaposed between newer highrise buildings, and the town itself has a much "funkier" feel than Sydney. Everyone says that Sydney is where all the glamorous people live, and Melbourne is more down-to-earth. Roughly, New York:Sydney as SanFran:Melbourne.

The red and yellow building in the top two photos is the train station, located along the Yarra River, and nearby to many of the museums, parks and the Rod Laver tennis stadium, where the Australian Open (tennis) is played every year.

We did a ton of walking around the city, and used the free city tram to do a loop around the city center en route to the famous Queen Victoria Market, where we were enthralled by the produce stands, and bought enough cheese to last us the entire trip.  (We were a bit overzealous it appears).

One of our favorite aspects of the city were the alleyways packed full of tiny cafes and restaurants.  Despite grey winter skies and chilly wind, the alfresco dining scene was still in full force in these alleys, as the effect of each individual restaurant's outdoor heaters combined with the tight spaces made it quite toasty and comfortable.  You could stroll through and read the chalkboard specials, all the while trying to keep from drooling on ourselves (Maya did anyway). There was an alley dedicated to Italian dining, a Chinatown section, and enough espresso being served to give Seattle a run for their money.