Melbourne

As you know by now I love Sydney especially the Northern Beaches and after having spent a weekend in Melbourne I am happy to say that Melbourne is pretty great too. It is a thriving city with so much to do and see. The city after dark and on the weekends is buzzing and feels much more alive than Sydney city. There are great cafes’, restaurants and bars which all seemed to be full to overflowing both nights we were there. In fact we could not get in to our first 2 restaurants of choice.  Though I never actually stay in Sydney city -  we drive to the city, to a particular venue then back out again – never staying and wandering around - so probably not a fair comparison.

We were staying near the ‘Press Club’ (Masterchef George Colombaris’s restaurant) and at first thought we might give that a go (so long as we didn’t have to watch George eat!) but it did look totally overpriced and lacking in warmth and ambience so we decided against it. Somehow I think George has a big enough clientele not to worry about missing out on our booking!

On a cold, crisp Saturday morning I thought I would take a run along the banks of the Yarra. I headed across the Princes Bridge and towards South Yarra on the pathway alongside the Yarra. I was surprised at what a busy place it was at 8am on a Saturday morning. There were loads of school girls heading out in their row boats with their coaches riding bicycles up and down the track calling out instructions on their megaphones.  I don’t know what takes more skill – rowing the boats or riding the pushbikes along a busy path without crashing into something or someone whilst simultaneously watching their rowers and giving instructions through a megaphone.

path between St Kilda & Port Melb

St Kilda is another great Melbourne destination and the drive along the bay front to Port Melbourne is very pretty. On Sunday morning we took a bike ride out to St Kilda for breakfast. We won’t go into the breakfast because, to be honest we are better off forgetting it (slow service, greasy bacon and tasteless scrambled eggs) but grabbing a bike and getting there was great (except for my frozen fingers and the icicle on my nose). The city bike shares are are fabulous – find a bike share location, put your credit card in the machine, grab a bike and go. I wasn’t keen to deal with Melbourne traffic and trams so we went via the Botanic Gardens path, through Albert Park, through the suburban back streets to the bay and onto the track around the bay and St Kilda. Being a Sunday morning there was heaps of bike riders about (mostly the lycra clad serious variety) and we had some odd looks as we rode along on bike conspicuos share bikes.

Beachcombers at St Kilda

I don’t know if it was just us or not but I will generalise here and say that Melbourne café/restaurant service is slower than Sydney’s. At both lunch and dinner (at totally different restaurants) on our first day we commented to each other that food was great but service pretty slow. At breakfast the next morning when it happened again I thought ‘its that slow Melbourne service again' then by the following morning it sure felt like a pattern.  Regrdless of the service issue, I did really enjoy my weekend in Melbourne and look forward to doing it again (on a warmer weekend).