Melbourne,the tourist highlights.

After spending the weekend with family today was an opportunity to take in some of the tourist sights of Melbourne. First stop was the Old Melborne Goal, which with our National Trust cards was free to enter,(Thank you Rosemary for the heads-up), the place where Ned Kelly was hanged. The prisoners were confined to small cells, where they were not allowed to talk, for twenty-three hours a day. They were only allowed out for exercise for the one hour during which they had to wear a hooded mask to prevent communication with other prisoners.

The prison housed inmates of both sexes and children, the youngest being three years old, imprisoned for idleness and insolence. Perhaps the most famous resident was the bushwacker Ned Kelly, who was nursed back to health after recieving 23 bullet wounds only to be found guilty of murder and then hanged!! I couldn’t resist the temptation to try a replica of his mask on.

A very interesting visit but very harrowing when you consider the way the people were treated and the numbers that were executed here.

Leaving the jail we had a short stroll through Chinatown towards Fitzroy Gardens and the oldest building in Australia, Cook’s Cottage.

The cottage originally built in Yorkshire by Captain Cook’s father was bought by a Melbourne business man in 1934 and rebuilt in its present position. There is little evidence that Captain Cook ever lived in it, in fact he probably only visited his father here on a couple of occassions. Hardly the historical building that you might imagine, the statue outside probably the closest Captain Cook has come to the cottage.

Next we walked to the Immigration Museum, taking a short diversion through some of the many arcades full of cafes and eating houses.

The Immigration museum highlights the importance that migrants have been to Australia and in particular the State of Victoria. The current exhibition focusses on the large influx of British immigrants in the years following the second world war, with personal tales from individual immigrants. Included in the exhibition were some of the advertising material used to encourage Britons to emigrate, some of which were quite amusing.

How could any teacher resist that!!

On a slightly more disturbing note the exhibtion showed how Australia at this time did everything to encourage white British immigrants while at the same time putting up barriers to others. These policies were not really changed until the early 70s since when a much more inclusive attitude has been seen, as indicated by this display of passports.

In the afternoon I had a wander up to the Moomba festival site. It was extreemly busy with plenty of sideshows, fairground rides, childrens entertainment and live music. On the river a water ski jump competition was taking place and BMX races were also being held. A excellent place for an afternoon with the children.

This evening we met up with Win and Jim and got some practice in for the cruise by going
to an all you can eat buffet.

Tomorrow we are exploring some of the countryside around Melbourne with Lorna and Patrick.

Family BBQ and Lakeside Walk.

Today we returned to Briony and Thai’s for a get together with Thai’s family. After catching the train and bus as yesterday we were the first to arrive. Before lighting up the barbeque a gazebo was erected to provide shelter from the intense sunshine.

Unfortunately no sooner than this was completed the sun decided to go in!

Thai took charge of the BBQ cooking chicken kebabs......

.....together with two speciality dishes, kanga sausages.....

....and Vietnamese fish wraps. These consisted of fish, noodles, salad and herbs all wrapped together in rice paper wraps as expertly demonstrated by Thai’s brother Loui.

Finished off by dipping in a specially prepared sauce they were delicious.

Now feeling rather full from all the food provided a walk was called for. Luckily Briony’s house is located very close to a lake so off we all set for a circular tour.

The lake is home to a great variety of bird life, many of which we don’t see in the UK. Here are some examples...

And perhaps my favourite, the Black Swan.

The children had a great time running around but we did manage to get them to stay still for a short time to get a photo.

All in all another brilliant day with family old and new, once again many thanks to Briony and Thai.

A Day with the Family.

One of the main reasons for choosing Melbourne as the start of our cruise is that it gives us an oppurtunity to visit our neice Briony. She lives in the suburb of Pakenham some 45 minutes from the centre of the city, just a short train ride away. Well a short train ride away on a normal day but today and for the next few days work is being carried out on the line with a bus replacing the train for a large part of the journey. The timetable indicated that the journey time would be increased to around 2 hours but having travelled half way around the world this wasn’t going to put us off.

The trains like the trams operate on a ticketless basis with a travel card called a MYKI being precharged with credit , the journey being charged by tapping the card at the beginning and end of each trip. We purchased the cards at the station and commenced the journey, the train sailing past the first five or six stations until we reached Caulfield. Here the train was emptied with all the passengers directed to waiting buses, one which was to stop at all the stations with the other an express non-stopping service to Dandenong, the station where the onward train jorney would recommence. There was plenty of staff around ensuring that everyone boarded the correct coach and before long we were heading off down the dual carriageway towards our destination. Although it obviously took longer than it normally would, it was nowhere near the forecasted 2 hours.

Sylvia’s sister Lorna and her grandson Tyson meet us at the station and walked us back to Briony and Thai’s house. Chatting to Tyson was just like talking to my own grandson Joey as it revolved around Roblox, Minecraft and You-Tubers.Technology doesn’t recognise national borders!

Briony had prepared a lovely lunch of pulled pork, coleslaw and potato wedges and as she admits herself her cooking skills have improved immensely since her attempts at an omlette at our house while she was at Uni. For dessert Thai introduced us to a new fruit called a Mangosteen...

.....a tropical fruit that has juicy segments that have a citrus sweet and sour taste. Although originating in Malaysia they are now grown locally in Australia.

With lunch complete the children disappeared to play with their technology which left the adults free to play with theirs...a kareoke machine. Songs of note were “Living on a Prayer”, “Delilah” and the fabulous Walker Sisters version of “Born to Wild”.

A great time was had by all although the neighbours didn’t join in! Thai not wanting us to endure the train journey back droveus to our hotel. It was much appreciatted, thank you Briony and Thai for a lovely day we’ll see you tomorrow!

Back in the city we had a walk in the warm evening sunshine along the riverside, first up to the convention centre.....

......and then returning on the other side to Alexander Gardens.

Another great day in Melbourne.

A Day in Melbourne.

With over 250 km of tracks and nearly 500 trams serving some 1763 stops, Melbourne boasts the World’s largest urban tramway. This being one of the facts relayed to us as we completed a round trip around the main sights of Melbourne city on one of the free trams that operate within the inner city area.

This gave us a good idea of the layout of the city and the location of the attractions we wanted to visit. Melbourne like many big cities is a mixture of new development together with some areas that have seem better days but overall it is a very young city both architecturally and population wise. I’m sure I read somewhere that the average age of the population here was 36 so you can imagine we felt quite old, although most of the natives seemed friendly enough.

Our hotel is part of a large complex which in addition to two hotels houses a conference centre, shops, leisure facilities and a very large casino. We were amazed to see that this was packed with gamblers even before lunchtime.
Alongside the complex runs the Yarra River and this afternoon we had a lovely walk along the river bank.

The city skyline shows the mixture of old and new buildings with the spires of St Pauls cathedral mixing with the high rise blocks.

We made our way along the river towards Alexandra Gardens and Queen Victoria gardens where we expected to see some beautiful trees and plants. Unfortunately these form the location this weekend of the Moomba festival where up to a million visitors are expected and the gardens are now home to a multitude of fairground rides!! I did manage one photo without them.

The weather today was sunny and hot with the temperature this afternoon topping 31C, quite a contrast to the weather we left behind in the UK, sun hats being the order of the day.

Tomorrow we are expecting even higher temperatures as we head off to meet the Hewitts in Packenham.

Phase One - London to Singapore.

Luggage checked in, straight through security and after a short walk we were in the airport lounge. The lounge is situated at the far end of the terminal quite close to where Jason Bourne finished off a would be impersonator in one of the movie trilogy (according to a plaque).
The lounge itself was quite quiet and offered a very good breakfast selection, including a couple of curry dishes. In no time at all we were boarding the plane into the very impressive Singapore Airlines business class.

The seats were much wider than those on BA and we were well looked after by the cabin staff. A great selection of entertainment was on offer including many of the recent Oscar winners, but the food was out of this world. I had a chicken dish with a pecan nut covering and it was delicious.

After having a post dinner nap and watching a couple of movies the twelve plus hour flight was nearing completion. A smooth touchdown into Singapore airport after which we stretched our legs taking in the sights and sounds of Changi.

In addition to the usual duty free shopping there are a number of eateries offering a variety of Asian street food and what seems to be a local delicacy Fish Skin Crisps. Also in the airport is a butterfly garden containing many large exotic examples.

Our final flight to Melbourne boards in about another hour so I am taking the oppurtunity of writing this entry in the lounge using the free wi-fi. Tomorrow’s post will be from Oz.

The Adventure Begins.

With the “Beast from the East” tamed and storm Emma now a distant memory, the journey to Heathrow went without a hitch. After checking in to the hotel and parking the car we made a recee to Terminal 2 to suss out our route for tomorrow morning. The hotel is linked to Terminal 4 via a covered walkway where we catch a free train to our departure terminal. In all the trek took about an hour so that means getting up at 6 in the morning - early night tonight then.

The full blog will be up and running sometime tomorrow, wifi permitting, with hopefully some pictures of the lounge and the aircraft. See you all then but for now Good Night.

Aloha ‘Oe - Until We Meet Again

The word Aloha has many meanings in Hawaiian including Hello, Goodbye, Love and Until we meet again. It therefore seemed perfect for the title of the final blog post this holiday.

Today was the last day at sea and the chance after all the ukulele lessons to perform in front of all the passengers (those who turned up at the theatre actually). Together with other voyagers who had been taking hula lessons an Hawaiian show was put together for everyone to enjoy.

After much persuasion from Tiki Dave, our teacher, the crowd went crazy and there were several standing ovations for both dancers and players. Sylvia said it looked and sounded very good.

Throughout the cruise on the sea days we have been taking part in the daily morning trivia. In addition to having daily prizes the scores have been accumulating to give an overall winning team for the cruise. Today was the prize giving and presentation with our team, “The Village People” taking first place. Sylvia and I had teamed up with two fellow cruisers Woody and Donna from Indianapolis and we seemed to have hit a winning formula. Now generally the prizes for the quizzes are pretty poor: a pen, a magnetic clip or lanyard being the norm, but on this occassion they did a lot better. We recieved a bag full of prizes per couple and a….CERTIFICATE!! Here we are with the trivia master - Chad.

Another enjoyable holiday has come to an end with lots of good memories. We look forward to travelling with you again next year from Australia to Singapore.

Back at sea - Homeward Bound.

After the wash out that was Maui, the first day back at sea brought forth the sun and with the ship sailing in a North Eastern direction our balcony this morning was bathed in sunshine.

As always there is plenty to do on the ship on sea days, with the ukelele classes restarting today after a four day lay-off. I spent the morning sorting and saving all the photos that we have taken on this holiday and believe me there are many. It was interesting to see how many different plants that we had pictured on the islands and wondered how many of these you recognise.

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I’m not sure that we know the names of all of them but thought that they looked good.