<< More of the Great Ocean Road

10/03/14 - Melbourne

After a night in the charming seaside town of Apollo Bay, we made it into Melbourne. The drive was beautiful, but challenging, with twists and turns and spectacular ocean views. Melbourne was a more serious driving challenge with bizarre driving rules, special lanes for making right turns from the left lane, tram traffic, pedestrian traffic and heavy machinery chewing up critical roads between us and our Thrifty car rental return garage.

Melbourne reminded us of New York with its hustle and bustle and urban sensibility. In contrast, Sydney was Los Angeles with its less formal manner. We wandered the city center with its streets and alleys and arcades, but we had dinner out in Saint Kilda, down by the waterfront. We spent the next day exploring more of Saint Kilda, checking out sea birds, the parks and esplanade, and watching the downtown skyline from the distance.

In town we found a cake supply shop, several book stores, fashionable clothing stores and a partially hidden Chinatown where we had fabulous freshly made dumplings. The main streets are wide with bus lanes and car lanes and acres of pedestrians. The alleys are bustling and lined with restaurants and fascinating shops.

We only had two nights and one full day in Melbourne. Next time, we'll stay longer.


The skyline as seen from St. Kilda

Downtown

More downtown

Fashionable clothing, at least for Martians

Ooh, cake decorations!

There's a bit of Venice (California) in Melbourne.

Wild beaches not far from downtown

More downtown, between traffic lights

Not quite New York, but a promising skyline

The view from across the river

Bicycle lanes and one of the bizarre, get left and wait for the light, then right turn lanes - either that or street corner suduko

Keywords: australia