Melbourne and Beyond
Jul. 20th, 2018 03:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetTasmania feels so long ago! We left there on Sunday morning and flew to Melbourne, where we rented a car and drove out to visit Sharon & Peter Monk.
Sharon is the sister-in-law of a very good friend and I'd met her and Peter a few years ago and kept up the connection, at least slightly. But they are the sort of people who instantly feel like family and when I said we'd be in the area, Sharon immediately asked how long we could stay.
They live about three hours east of Melbourne, in the home they've built over the past thirty years. They are both artists and their home is an amazing work, with every detail creative and personal. Their stories of raising three children out in the bush are astonishing. We had a marvelous time with them and got to meet their daughter, Lili, and her husband, Dave, who live not far away and are also interesting and excellent people.
We mostly spent our time with them enjoying the company and conversation--Alice took to Sharon immediately--but we did get out to see Wilson's Promontory, the southernmost point of mainland Australia, where they've spent lots of time camping, etc. over the years. It was a cold, windy day, but we had a nice walk on the beach and got to see kookaburras, rosellas, and even an echidna crossing the road!
We were all sorry to leave them, but excited to get to Melbourne. Our first outing after checking into our flat, was the Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Walking Tour. That was very interesting, even for Alice, who isn't such a fan of the show. We got an overview of Melbourne history and geography, as well as seeing several locations used by the production. Our guide had clips cued up on her iPad, so she could show us the scenes in question as we talked about them, and it was especially interesting to see how they'd edited modern traces out of many shots.
That evening we went to dinner at Sunda, a relatively new Asian fusion restaurant. It was a phenomenal meal: every dish was original, inventive, but grounded in the flavors of the inspiring dish. Alice tried everything and liked much of it, but especially the kangaroo tartare and the mushroom congee topped with Australian black truffle shavings.
On Wednesday we got a late start. We took the free tram to the river and then walked along it to the aquarium. That was pitched pretty young, but had many local organisms that we'd never seen before, so we did learn quite a bit. I had no idea there are leopard-patterned rays!
After that we visited a couple of the museums in Federation Square. Jason and Alice checked out the video games at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, while I zipped through the National Gallery of Victoria's Ian Potter Centre collection of Australian art.
On our last night in Sydney my friend Elana tagged me in a video of a restaurant there...and in Melbourne. So on Wednesday night we had dinner at Mjolner, a Viking-themed restaurant. The food was good and while everything (except, weirdly enough, the music, which was fairly loud hip-hop) was part of the schtick, they managed to stay on the right side of it. Perhaps the most memorable experience was drinking scotch out of the bone Alice had emptied of roasted marrow.
On Thursday we spent the day at the Melbourne Museum. We did an overview tour, spent some time in the Evolution of Victoria and First Peoples galleries, took a tour of the Royal Exhibition Hall, and saw an IMAX movie about reintroducing pandas to the wild. In the evening we went to Din Tai Fung for dumplings and then acquired socks for Jason and New sneakers for Alice, whose feet have suddenly jumped a size again.
This morning we got on the road reasonably early and spent the day driving the Great Ocean Road. It was sadly rainy, with limited views, but we did get to see some awe-inspiring waves along the way. After lunch in Apollo Bay we drove inland to the Otway Fly, a treetop walkway though the rain forest. Rejoining the GOR, we were just in time to reach the Twelve Apostles Rock formations at sunset. After that we made a quick stop at the Loch Ard Gorge before dark, then came on to Port Campbell, where we had a reservation for the night.
We wanted two queen beds, so ended up in a gigantic two bedroom villa--Alice basically has her own separate apartment upstairs from us. We had a perfectly fine dinner at the place across the street and did our best to get to bed early.
Tomorrow: Warrnambool and up to Dunkeld!
Sharon is the sister-in-law of a very good friend and I'd met her and Peter a few years ago and kept up the connection, at least slightly. But they are the sort of people who instantly feel like family and when I said we'd be in the area, Sharon immediately asked how long we could stay.
They live about three hours east of Melbourne, in the home they've built over the past thirty years. They are both artists and their home is an amazing work, with every detail creative and personal. Their stories of raising three children out in the bush are astonishing. We had a marvelous time with them and got to meet their daughter, Lili, and her husband, Dave, who live not far away and are also interesting and excellent people.
We mostly spent our time with them enjoying the company and conversation--Alice took to Sharon immediately--but we did get out to see Wilson's Promontory, the southernmost point of mainland Australia, where they've spent lots of time camping, etc. over the years. It was a cold, windy day, but we had a nice walk on the beach and got to see kookaburras, rosellas, and even an echidna crossing the road!
We were all sorry to leave them, but excited to get to Melbourne. Our first outing after checking into our flat, was the Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Walking Tour. That was very interesting, even for Alice, who isn't such a fan of the show. We got an overview of Melbourne history and geography, as well as seeing several locations used by the production. Our guide had clips cued up on her iPad, so she could show us the scenes in question as we talked about them, and it was especially interesting to see how they'd edited modern traces out of many shots.
That evening we went to dinner at Sunda, a relatively new Asian fusion restaurant. It was a phenomenal meal: every dish was original, inventive, but grounded in the flavors of the inspiring dish. Alice tried everything and liked much of it, but especially the kangaroo tartare and the mushroom congee topped with Australian black truffle shavings.
On Wednesday we got a late start. We took the free tram to the river and then walked along it to the aquarium. That was pitched pretty young, but had many local organisms that we'd never seen before, so we did learn quite a bit. I had no idea there are leopard-patterned rays!
After that we visited a couple of the museums in Federation Square. Jason and Alice checked out the video games at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, while I zipped through the National Gallery of Victoria's Ian Potter Centre collection of Australian art.
On our last night in Sydney my friend Elana tagged me in a video of a restaurant there...and in Melbourne. So on Wednesday night we had dinner at Mjolner, a Viking-themed restaurant. The food was good and while everything (except, weirdly enough, the music, which was fairly loud hip-hop) was part of the schtick, they managed to stay on the right side of it. Perhaps the most memorable experience was drinking scotch out of the bone Alice had emptied of roasted marrow.
On Thursday we spent the day at the Melbourne Museum. We did an overview tour, spent some time in the Evolution of Victoria and First Peoples galleries, took a tour of the Royal Exhibition Hall, and saw an IMAX movie about reintroducing pandas to the wild. In the evening we went to Din Tai Fung for dumplings and then acquired socks for Jason and New sneakers for Alice, whose feet have suddenly jumped a size again.
This morning we got on the road reasonably early and spent the day driving the Great Ocean Road. It was sadly rainy, with limited views, but we did get to see some awe-inspiring waves along the way. After lunch in Apollo Bay we drove inland to the Otway Fly, a treetop walkway though the rain forest. Rejoining the GOR, we were just in time to reach the Twelve Apostles Rock formations at sunset. After that we made a quick stop at the Loch Ard Gorge before dark, then came on to Port Campbell, where we had a reservation for the night.
We wanted two queen beds, so ended up in a gigantic two bedroom villa--Alice basically has her own separate apartment upstairs from us. We had a perfectly fine dinner at the place across the street and did our best to get to bed early.
Tomorrow: Warrnambool and up to Dunkeld!
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