Sunday in Melbourne . . .

It's Sunday, and, as you know from reading our blogposts from wherever, Tim and I try and find our respective churches.  Mine is just up the street from THE garden in Melbourne and we agree to meet Sally and Richard there after church.  Another glorious day, and it seems like half the population is out and about here at the Botanical Gardens.  If you look just over Tim's shoulder, you will see a boatman and, yes, he takes people on gondola rides across this wee lake.

We opt for a walkabout - glorious, fabulous gardens!

. . . with a few vintage buildings thrown in for good measure.

Then we're off to see another Melbourne sight - an art complex in a repurposed convent.

This was one of many installations . . . a number of artists have studios in this rambling space and there are numerous school activities, including a working mini-farm.  They also have concerts and all sorts of neat activities for folks of all ages.  

What a fitting end for our incredible stay in this most livable city.  Melbourne certainly gets our vote for one of the world's most livable cities.  Thank you, Sally and Richard, for showing us the 'insider's Melbourne' - we look forward to your visit with us in the States!

Sovereign Hill or You Too Could Strike it Rich

About an hour's drive from Melbourne is one of the most visited local attractions.  Sovereign Hill is a reconstructed gold mining town, complete with streams where you can still pan for gold.  Richard, the noble host, takes us on an outing near the end of our visit (Sally is busy getting set up for the new school term in her MFA program).

This is an authentically restored town that no doubt looks much like it did in the late 1800's.

Complete with draft horses and lots of carriages.

One of the highlights - alas, no photos - was a trip into one of the mine shafts.  We rode in an enclosed mini-train car deep into the earth and walked through the tunnels used by the miners.
Above ground, we visited the local metal-workers shop (no, this lad has not been around since the 1800's!).

And everyone gets to pan for gold - couldn't resist trying to find the airfare home!

No such luck - maybe we'll just have to stay in Melbourne!

Thank you, Richard, for another wonderful experience!

A Walkabout in Downtown Melbourne

One of the highlights of any visit to Melbourne is a visit to the Gardens - in this case the Fitzroy which is one of many which make this city a walker's delight.  And right in the middle of the Fitzroy is Captain Cook's house!  No, he wasn't an Australian but is responsible for much of the early cartography thanks to his numerous sea-faring adventures (they weren't called 'Cooks' Tours for nuthin!).  So Melbournians dismantled his house in merry olde England and brought it here and painstakingly reassembled it!

And look at the merry old Englanders we meet here!  Our very own Debbie and Paul!  No, this was not a serendipitous traveling encounter - we realized we'd all be in Melbourne at the same time and agreed to meet up, prior to meeting Sally and Richard for lunch later.  Can't believe how delighted we are to see them and we just left them in Fiji a little over a month ago.

They, however, have a bit more dignity than we do and decline the guide's offer to 'dress-up' in some period clothes.  Not us!  Do we look authentic or what?? 

We all love the house tour and gawp, speechless, at the map of Cook's travels.  I need to find a bio of this remarkable guy.

And then it's off to meet Sally and Richard for lunch followed by a tour of the 'alleys' which is Melbourne 'must see'.  First a quick look at the Model Tudor Village, a touching tribute to the efforts of Australians after WWII . . . 

And to lunch at a wonderful cafe right on the river.

And then off to the 'alleys'.  Sally could be a tour guide!  She shepherds us through a maze (at least it feels like that to us) of streets and then, voila!  This is the ultimate in tagging, street art, public art - you name it, it's absolutely wonderful and Melbourne has embraced it with enthusiasm.

 This was one of my favorites; look at the window to get a sense of the size of this.

 This reminded me of psychedelic (does anyone even use that term any more??) street art I saw in Venice Beach, CA 40+ years ago.  (no, I was not wearing my pink blouse!)

This is all done with spray paint!! I can barely manage to paint an old chair without getting it all over myself and the surroundings.  What talent and how wonderful that Melbourne celebrates it rather than criminalizes it.  What a city!!

Now we're on to Fed Square and another of Sally's favorite tour stops.  Cities need squares (Times Square, Trafalgar Square, Red Square) and Melbourne's has this lovely air of civility and energy.  We take a break:

One more wander through an arcade of shops, oh so lovely and historic at the same time.  These are not curio, tourist places; they're real shops (in fact, Sally stops at her hair salon to confirm an appointment).  My memory being what it is, the name of this arcade eludes me right now but it was marvelous.

This clock is the centerpiece of the - hold on folks, the name just came back to me - The Royal Arcade!

Did I mention that Melbournians know how to live?  Witness this lovely spirit bar, in the Royal Arcade, a welcome respite for all.   This is truly a delightful, most livable city.  

A Spectacular Refuge and a Vintage Farm

Not far from our 'bach' and the penguin sanctuary is an incredibly spectacular refuge with a lovely display of its marine history and a number of walking paths.  The Victoria government decided to protect this whole portion of the coastline and piece by piece acquired it as landowners agreed to sell (I don't know if they have 'eminent domain' down under).  This is utterly breathtaking scenery . . . 

And a number of wallabies for authenticity - this fellow just stood there while I photographed him.

As we leave Philip Island, there is one more 'must see' - a vintage farm.  I think Sally and Richard knew we could use a 'horse fix'!

Beautifully restored and maintained, the original home is completely furnished, right down to vintage clothing and shoes.

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The gardens are lovingly maintained with special care given to the ancient trees, especially a Norfolk pine, planted in 1872 and still thriving.

And these trees aren't decked out for some sort of can-can  event; these are sheep wool girdles to protect them from some sort of nasty thing.

Gorgeous gardens . . . thank you Sally and Richard for introducing us to this magical Island!

32,000 Penguins and Counting . . .

Well, color me embarrassed!  Here it is months and months after we finished our last excellent adventure, and I realized I never finished my entries for Melbourne.  Upon our return to the States, we had a number of 'issues' to deal with, and finishing my SE Asia travel blog entries didn't even make the top ten.  So now I will attempt - after almost six months - to reconstruct the last of our adventures in Australia.  And my apologies to Sally and Richard, our incredibly gracious and generous hosts in Melbourne.   We loved our time with you and deeply appreciate your warmth and hospitality.

When last we left the narrative, we were lounging around at the 'bach' of a colleague of Sally's and planning an evening of penguin-watching at the local sanctuary.  These wee penguins, the smallest of all penguins, are the pride of the locals and their sanctuary is a major tourist attraction.  The 'show' begins just after dusk when hundreds (they're carefully counted every night) of them come ashore and make the trek to their burrows.  Here we are making the reverse trek to the viewing stands.

There are two sets of viewing stands, and getting there early assured us a spot up front.  Now we wait patiently for the penguins to arrive.

We are told by the park ranger that they arrived in 'rafts' - a group that athletically clings to each other as they surf their way onto the beach - which makes them somewhat safe from predators.  There are virtually no threats to these little guys (other than the occasional fox) but they're not taking any chances.

Once out of the water, they make their way up the beach and into their 'hood.  We were absolutely forbidden from taking any photos - hard to do when these little fellas were within 8-10 feet of us.  (check out the Philip Island Penguin Parade web site for some incredible 'legal' shots).

And they are so determined, so focussed, waddling with purpose.  Some walk as far as 2 km.  When you're only 12-18" tall and waddle, that's a really long trek.  Watching them reminded me of days of yore wearing truly uncomfortable fashion statements that passed for shoes!

Once they were all ashore, we left the beach and followed a couple of groups as they made their way home.  Along the way, a couple of them just collapsed - plop!  Those of us watching over the rails were actually urging them on!!  And finally they're home . . .

Now I'm relying on my memory (stop laughing please) . . . the females have been waiting in the burrow and the surfer dude males are now home for a bit of R&R or parental duty.  Oh but wait, we learn that occasionally when the female isn't pregnant she may decide to take a hike.  Yup, the male returns to find the burrow empty and his former lady love decamped to a nearby burrow which she is decorating with her new partner.  Fickle lot these female penguins . . .

Ah, but you may wonder, is it only the males who take to the sea?  Where oh where are the adventurous females?  But one of many unanswered questions.  I can say that penguins spend up to 80% of their lives in the water; 600-900 of them come ashore every night, and no one seems to know why they choose a particular night, or how often they 'raft' in and head for their burrows.

These wee penguins were the subject of a worldwide alert not long ago when an oil spill threatened their habitat.  Seems their coat (fur?) was picking up the slimy stuff and, the poor wee ones were freezing.   Not to worry, the rangers put out a country-wide (world-wide?) alert for penguin sweaters. They even included a template which included little flipper slits.  (I'm not making this up, honest!)
Here's one of the donations:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/inspire-me/66082828/Australias-oldest-man-knits-jumpers-for-tiny-penguins

Who ever said that Australian men don't have a soft side??

We four only have to waddle to the car after this enchanting evening (sans sweaters).

The World's Most Livable City!

Everyone we've known who's been to Melbourne has raved about it, and now we'll get to see for ourselves.  A bit of background . . . in 2008 we spent a month in Australia, most of it up and down the East Coast with a 4-day trip to Uluru, the iconic aboriginal site in Central Australia.  (Our original plan was to go to India for that month but changed our minds after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai just two weeks before our scheduled departure!)  It was obvious that we had just scratched the surface of this fascinating and diverse country.  We loved it and promised ourselves a return trip.

Originally we thought we'd spend up to a month 'doing' Southern and Western Australia on this trip.  But we kept adding countries in SE Asia and then threw in Christmas/New Year's in Fiji and a stop in NZ to see friends, and our trip was already into month four.  So we opted for a quick visit to one mutually-agreed upon spot and then another, 'bloody good' stay on our next trip.  Picking one spot was easy - Melbourne!

I began researching places to stay for a week or so. With several candidate accommodations in neighborhoods which meant nothing to me, I was kind of stymied. Then I remembered we had new pals there - Sally and Richard - a delightful couple we'd met in Varanas, India less than a year ago.  We'd been in touch via email, and I emailed Sally, asking if she could recommend one of the neighborhoods I was considering.  Amazingly, she invited us to stay with them!!  They live in the North Carlton neighborhood, a quick and easy transit ride to all the attractions of Melbourne.  And they were disappointed that we could only stay 9 days!!  How very blest we are!!

They happily met us when our flight from Bali arrived at 9 a.m. -

On the way into town from the airport, they apologize that they've booked a 2 day/3 night stay (starting tomorrow) at a friend's place on Philip Island and hoped that was all right with us!!  Oh I guess so :))  We get settled in their marvelous home and get a quick tour of the 'hood which is absolutely delightful - lots of local restaurants, shops. broad boulevards flanked with gorgeous old trees shading beautiful, wide sidewalks.  Melbourne has already enchanted us!

Philip Island - a favorite getaway for so many locals, is an easy 1-1.5 hour drive and it's another world.  We're staying at a family getaway, built by the papa back in the '60's and about 50 paces from the shore - beautiful!

Relaxing on the porch and catching up on the local news.

Tim and Richard and Pepi on the beach.

Sally and Pepi trying out the surf!

And one of the biggest treats of being here (THE biggest treat was yet to come!) was the abundance of wildlife - wallabies that came right up to the porch to drink from the ever-present water bucket provided for them.

Here's one intrepid fellow on his way to the bucket.

Yes, he was this close to us!!

And tonight we're off for the super, special treat on Philip Island - the Parade of the Penguins!

Bye Bye Bali . . .

We have one more week on Bali, 7.5 days to be precise as our flight leaves at 11:35 pm which is exactly 25 minutes before our 30-day visa expires! At 12:01am we will slide into day 31, and the Indonesian government is very rigid about their visas.  They are good for 30 nights, and if you don't leave before 30 nights becomes 31, well, who knows . . . ??

Bali being Bali, there are no shortage of places to stay; the challenge is finding the right place for us.  Lots of reading, scanning web sites, and we decide the best place for us is Sanur (dubbed '
'Snooze' by the LP set - a somewhat sleepy beach 'town' favored by expats and the older crowd.  And it's an easy 45" drive to the airport which is definitely a consideration.  Now, to find a place to stay . . . we stumble on the absolute most delightful place, Kembali Lagi, which we learn means 'Come Back Again' in Indonesian.  Reviewers have written glowingly about it with the most common comment being that it is always booked solid.  We give it a try and Camille, the owner, assures us she can squeeze us in if we don't mind a bit of a gypsy booking - namely, moving a few times over our 7-night stay.

What a perfectly wonderful way for us to end our stay on Bali!  We arrive on Valentine's Day and find a lovely, live floral arrangement with a HVD message from Camille and John, the owners.  Now that's classy!  Our first room is one of the smaller ones but still beautifully appointed and with the most delightful staff - they didn't get the 'we're staff, they're guests' training.  They are all Balinese, delightfully outspoken and funny and all speak perfect English.  It's small, intimate, and an absolute oasis.

One night we spend in the 'villa' an enormous (5-BR) house just up the street (only one other bedroom was occupied) and the last three nights in one of the larger rooms, right next to the pool, which I used several times a day.  In addition to all the other delights, KL had a well-stocked library of books which we both took full advantage of.

One of the reasons we chose Sanur was its description as a 'walking town' - the long, sandy beach and walkway runs nearly 7 km.  It's a bit of a walk to the beach but we happily make our way there one morning, stake out our patch of sand, and head into the water.  It's an okay beach and we paddle around in the water which is a nice temperature and then, AND THEN . . . A N D  T H E N . . . Tim spots something in the water which we both have to look at twice,  It can't be, NOOOOO - we're swimming, we're in the water with a HUMAN TURD!!!  OMG, we are out of there so fast, on the verge of hurling all over the beach!!!  We had read that some of the beaches in Kuta, the uber tourist beach part of Bali, have been utterly fouled but had no idea the fouling had reached all the way up to Sanur.  How very disgusting and how very sad . . . back to the swimming pool for the duration!

Fortunately, there are a host of wonderful restaurants all up and down the main drag; we find an Italian (Massimo's) restaurant and an Indian restaurant (best butter chicken we've ever eaten!) which are totally delightful.  And we spend a wonderful, relaxing week at KL, getting to know Camille and John (both expat Americans) as well as lots of other guests from all over the world.  Loved staying here . . .

So bye, bye Bali.  We're glad we came; no trip to this part of the world would be complete without a stop in Bali.  I think if we'd come 10 or 15 years ago we would have liked it a whole lot more.  Now it felt over-touristed and in danger of being a victim of its own success.

Off to Australia!!