Melbourne

We woke early and Mars went off to the Laundromat with Brenton to do a few loads of washing before we headed into Melbourne. When he came back we had breakfast and packed up.  Our plan was to drive into Melbourne, park near the Spirit of Tasmania (free parking!) then walk into the City to get onto the free tram. As we only planned to be in Melbourne for one day we didn't want to spend $50-$60 to buy a Myki for us and the kids.

We found a parking spot then started our walk into the city (thank you Google Maps!).  It was a really warm day but a beautiful day to be out!  We walked the 50 minutes into the City then stopped to enjoy lunch in Nandos. From there we had to find our way to a ferry for a tour on the Yarra River.  It was a short walk to the dock but eye-opening for us with beds set up under bridges and lots of rubbish littered around.

 

We arrived at the dock just in time to take the cruise which was departing in the next 5 minutes. We hopped aboard the boat and made ourselves comfortable, Axel quickly started charming the people behind us with peek-a-boo games!  We were able to sit out the back of the ferry - which we chose to do on the return trip.  Every time the ferry went under the low bridges the Captain blew the horn for the people on the back to duck!

The driver gave a running commentary on the history and uses of the buildings and bridges we saw. As we got to the shipping wharfs there were a number of Cargo ships waiting to be loaded up with shipping containers.  Apparently it costs $2000 an hour to park there, so the loading has to be done quickly! The apparatus which is used to load the containers has been fine-tuned to run very efficiently!

We watched the Tourist helicopters launch from the rivers edge to do a quick tour of the City.  We also went past high rise apartment blocks - which have some hefty price tags! There were a number of other ferries doing tours of the river as well.

As the ferry turned around the kids chose to sit on the back of the boat to enjoy the sunshine and the views.

It was an enjoyable boat trip.  However, this was the only sightseeing we did in Melbourne so we really didn't see much!  We had hoped at least to take the kids on the free innercity tram but just ran out of time!  We were all a bit disappointed with that but just focused on the idea of doing the trams in Sydney instead.

We started our long walk back to the car and caravan. It definitely got a bit long towards the end. In general the kids do very well with long walks, however, it only takes about 3 minutes of walking for Rowan to pipe up 'I got a tummy ache!' which is repeated until someone picks him up! Good thing he doesn't weigh much!

We managed to find our way back to the car where we sat and enjoyed a drink to recover! Mars worked out which way we were going to head out of the City - at 6pm on Friday night (on a Long Weekend!!!).