Day 44 – Tuesday, February 18, 2025 – Melbourne

I would have to say that this day started off on the wrong foot, for lack of a better phrase. We were supposed to come into Melbourne at 9:00. For some unknown reason, they changed this to 10:00. One of the stops that we were supposed to go on was a train ride. The train was about an hour and 20 minutes north of Melbourne. The tickets we had were for 11:15. Add to this, that we did not get a clear message to get off the ship, so we hung around until we saw others getting off. This probably took us 20 minutes or so. Long story short, we did not meet our driver, Rod, until a little after 1030. There was no way we were gonna make the train ride. Rod pulls up in a white van. The van was like ours. It was a Kia instead of a Dodge, but other than that they looked very similar. Rod, himself, is 71 years old. He did not look 71 to me. We did our introductions while Rod was loading me in the van. It was a rear loading van so I was at a angle in the back. This is not a bad thing - just a comment. I was strapped down well. Even though we knew we would not make the train leaving Belgrade, we decided to drive up that way anyway. It was a very scenic ride. Once we got to Belgrade we realized that the train was only part way up to Lakeside. The thinking was we could beat the train to Lakeside and then take it back down to Belgrade. The thought was good. When we got to Lakeside, the train was not leaving for another hour and 20 minutes. We did not want to wait this long because our day was already shortened. It was a scenic ride. It looked a lot like northern Wisconsin or northern Michigan. It was heavily wooded.

Rod suggested we drive down to the marketplace. It was back into the city, so the ride was about an hour or so. When we finally got there, it reminded me of a flea marketplace. There were probably 100 stalls selling everything from apples to xylophones, if you get my drift. We found a T-shirt shop where we bought a few T-shirts. Mary found refrigerator magnets and postcards. We did not hang around there long because we still had other things to do with a dwindling clock.

Our next stop was not far from the marketplace. It was the Melbourne Museum. The closing time was 5:00 and this was already near 4:00 so we decided to concentrate on Melbourne history. It was one section of a huge museum.  We learned quite a bit about Melbourne history. How it was formed primarily by a gold rush in the 1850s. They had an interesting display where it showed the population spread from about 1500 to the modern day. It had things like the Stagecoach which transferred gold miners. It showed some of its maritime history. Kind of a general high level history of Melbourne in about 100 square feet. Not too much detail, but enough to give you a general idea. It was a good stop.

Melbourne has a building that has a skydeck. I don't remember the name of the building but it was about 900 feet up. If you've been to the top of the John Hancock or Willis tower, you know what this is like. It showed the panorama of the city and surrounding areas. From 900 feet you can see quite far. It was cool. We took a lot of pictures. We did not spend a lot of time there. The intent originally was to go to the skydeck and then the restaurant that was up there. Instead, we decided to go to dinner at an Australian pub instead. The skydeck view gave you a good understanding of the size of the city and how it was formed around the Bay.

We had one more stop before we went to the pub. Rod suggested that we drive by the beach. It took a while to get down to the beach but thankfully it was close to the ship. I was starting to look at the clock pretty closely. The ship was to leave at 9:30 and this was already like 7:00. We got out of the van and wandered around the beach on the sidewalk until the sidewalk ran out. Because the sun was setting the view was pretty, as most beaches are. It was windy and cool.

The pub could be seen across the street, but getting there was about a 10 minute drive. Once we got there we had to figure out where to park. That was probably another 10 minutes. Finally, we get to the building and there are multiple restaurants. The one we want is the one we can't find. So we took another 10 minutes or so on the elevator to find the right restaurant. All the time, I'm watching the clock tick. We finally got a table and we ordered. I ordered an IPA, the name of which I no longer remember. It was a good one though. Mary and I both ordered cheeseburgers and fries. Rod ordered a steak and he ordered three of his favorite beer. The ntent was to give one to each of us. It was a good lager. It was a light beer. I didn't tell rod, but I thought my IPA was better. The real part of this story was the cheeseburger and fries. Now we've been on the ship for 40 some days and we've eaten everything from hot dogs to filet mignon. This damn cheeseburger was by far the best thing we've eaten so far. Not only that, the fries were done perfectly. We don't get excited about food, but this was an amazing burger and fries. We were so happy that we did the pub instead of the scenic restaurant. We finished our beers and headed out the door.

The ship was about 15 minutes away. We were supposed to be on the ship by 9:00. We pulled into the cruise parking lot at 8:45. We still had about 1/4 of a mile to walk from the cruise terminal to the ship. Thankfully, we did not have a lot of stuff to carry and we made it in plenty of time. For me, it was cutting it too close, but we made it.

What started out to be a so-so event ended with a bang. Every stop got a little better. It probably would have been nice to go on the train. We probably would have seen some nice terrain. We probably got an adequate view by driving the road that followed the train route. So it wasn't that big of a miss. We learned a little bit about the history of the Melbourne. We got a pretty good understanding of the lay of the land at the skydeck. We got to experience the beach. We got to experience their marketplace. Most importantly, we got to experience the burger and the beer. Melbourne felt bigger than Sydney, Although it's hard to tell. Melbourne had more big buildings and a larger downtown area. Sydney had more of an artsy feel to it. I suppose it's not fair to compare one against the other, but milbourne was a interesting city. Rod was a good guy. He made this trip enjoyable and successful. It was a good stop and a good day.