Tazmania and Lizard, Thu Dec 8, 2022
The flight wasn't full so we had only the two of us in the 3 seat row, one row behind front row of second section, near bathroom on a 787. Kathi slept mostly flat but curled legs. The screen was set to Seoul not Sydney so no movie until flying for awhile. Air Canada served a pretty good dinner at 9:30pm, orzo w/green beans, chicken in a tomato sauce. Chris had beef w/carrots and mashed potatoes. Goal is to stay up really late and then sleep for the second half of this 15h45m leg. We lost a day to the west-bound date-line crossing. I love flying on 787. We had a row to ourselves so Kathi got to sleep more than usual. It was a challenge to stay up as long as possible then sleep for the second 8 hrs. Got maybe 4 hrs sleep and watched a lot of youtube and did some programming.
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| 8:30 AM Australian Eastern Daylight Time, finally thru to coffee! |
Sydney airport is awful. We arrived on time but spent an hour waiting for our bags. Then a long 20 minute bus ride from T1 (international) to T2 (domestic) and a half hour in line to drop off our already-tagged bag. Then another 20+ minutes in security line. We used almost all of our 2h45m layover. But then the Virgin Australia flight to Melbourne in a 737-800 was pretty comfortable. Melbourne airport is much easier. Quick to get bags then an easy Uber from the airport to the hotel. Our hotel (Brady Hotels Central Melbourne) is very well located, quite central to lots of walking around attractions.
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| waiting for the Virgin Australia flight to take off to MEL Melbourne. Got exit row. |
we're off the plane at 11:23am and noticing a bit of water on the windows. Is it raining?
MEL is a really nice airport compared to SYD. Quick to get our bags and easy out to catch an Uber
11:40am Uber to hotel downtown, weather isn't bad. Two days ago - 35°C, yesterday 18-20, today 14°C. Nice and comfortable!
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| Chris is ready for noodles |
Lanzhou Beef Noodle at Bowltiful
12:41pm just down the street from our hotel (Brady Hotels Central Melbourne) we lucked out finding this Lanzhou Beef Noodle house "Bowltiful" - serving asian noodle bowls - very tasty.
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| Beautiful! The bowls of noodles too ;-) |
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| Damn that was good! |
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| The clientel is mostly asian and the place was packed. It lives up to its reviews. |
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| Fresh tatoo of an Emu face. Pretty cool. |
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| These are the types of noodles offered. You specify which of nine types of noodles you want in your bowl. |
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| These are the broth, meat, and vegetable combination offerings. |
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| This is what Kathi got |
Queen Victoria Market
After lunch, we walked a few blocks up Elizabeth Street and stumbled into the Queen Victoria Market
Queen Victoria Market is a historical landmark market selling food, clothing and lots of interesting, random stuff. It spans a couple of city blocks.
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| The high-rise buildings of central Melbourne are amazing. Such interesting textures and shapes. |
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| Exotic meats |
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| and a cheese selection that rivals any in France and Montrèal |
Then out into a covered area with tonnes of fresh food stalls / farmer's market area.
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| this reminds me of the Jean Talon Market in Montrèal |
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| More exotic meats |
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| Kathi loves buying chocolate, here she got some koko black, OMG great truffles! |
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| It's Kathi's bike in green :) |
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| Chris is always clowning around, and itching to ride anything with two wheels |
It started raining hard briefly. Fortunately we were still close to our hotel. But stopped soon after and was a decent day while we walked around.
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| More interesting buildings and construction cranes |
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| Back to our hotel to rest a bit |
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| Construction crane across the street outside our hotel. Seems like a lot of construction is going on here. |
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| View from our 8th floor window |
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Kathi always likes to get pictures of our hotel rooms.
This is a pretty nice room with a nice kitchen, comfortable bed, and desk area. |
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| Looking down from our window, it looks like a lot of underground construction is under way. |
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and across the street, looking down from our balcony, a crane is lifting large trays of rock out of that hole,
dumping them in the tray in front of that excavator which puts it into dump trucks that drive through on the left. Interesting.
and lots of ventillation equipment. What the heck is going on here? |
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| Our desert haul from Smile Bread, koko black, and Metro (the Kombucha) |
A walk down to Docklands Warf
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After resting, we went walking again.
Here we spotted some interesting lamps |
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| a design that might work for our living room. |
Docklands Warf area is a modern harbour development with views of high-rise buildings, yachts and the Yarra River, with a nice pedestrian plaza with murals and sculpture.
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| Lots of fancy power boats but no sail boats docked here at the warf |
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The Melbourne high-rise buildings are super interesting. This one on the warf is reminiscent of waves on the water.
The one behind it has an interesting texture and leaning surfaces.
I just love Melbourne's architecture! |
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| One of these is not like the others |
On the way back, we stopped in a supermarket called "Metro" to pick up snacks/dinner. We bought yummy Australian yogurt, buffalo milk motz, chocolate, and kombuchas.
today, we walked 12k steps. Pretty good for a day that started with 27hrs of air travel.
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