Friday, July 23, 2010

Melbourne!!! Day 4 - home time

Our last day in Melbourne was a bit of a rush, since we were being picked up to go to the airport at 11am!

So we started the day with a delicious breakfast at Edelweiss Cafe
Edelweiss Cafe

Edelweiss Cafe
Janet had bacon and eggs, with lovely thick toast

Edelweiss Cafe
and I had the Vegetarian Breakfast - which had mushrooms, hash brown, baked beans, tomato and toast!

Then we went for a walk around town - We stopped to take some photos of all of the grafitti in Union Lane -
Union Lane

Union Lane

Union Lane

And then we headed back to the hotel to wait for the shuttle bus.  and headed for the airport.  We had to wait in a long line to check in, and then we had to wait for a long time at the gate - we used up some time by removing some of the 27 layers of clothes we had been wearing so that our carry on luggage was correct weight :-) Since we knew there would be no food to buy on the plane (except pringles) we grabbed some lunch from the airport.
Airport Food
this vegie pizza was the only vegetarian thing I could find. Even the sandwiches all contained meat.

Airport Food
and Janet had a chicken sandwich.

on the way home
and then it was up up and away, back home!!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Melbourne!!! Day 3 - Great Ocean Road Tour

Breakfast
breakfast was a couple of croissants from "Pie Face" which we had purchased the night before.  I tried to heat them up by snuggling them close to the boiling kettle in our hotel room. fail. Still, yummy enough croissants! We were being picked up by Wild Life Tours Australia for a one day tour of the Great Ocean Road!

Great Ocean Road Tour
first stop was the famous Bells Beach

Great Ocean Road Tour

Great Ocean Road Tour

Great Ocean Road Tour
I saw my first ever "wild" Koala. In that we saw Koalas that were in trees, not in zoos!



Great Ocean Road Tour

We had lunch (included in the tour) at Apollo Bay. Hanet had the Roast Chicken, Chips and I ate her salad :-)


Great Ocean Road Tour

I had a Vegie Burger.

Great Ocean Road Tour
We had about half an hour after lunch to have a wander around. We found ourselves at this ice cream shop :-)


Great Ocean Road Tour

Great Ocean Road Tour

It was delicious icecream! Janet had honeycomb, I had Dulce de Leche Gelato. mmmmmmmmm


Great Ocean Road Tour
We ate our ice cream whilst walking out to see the view of Apollo Bay.Then it was back onto our little bus.



Great Ocean Road Tour
next stop was Maits Rest Rainforest Walk

Great Ocean Road Tour
Then on to the twelve apostles.....

Great Ocean Road Tour
......Loch Ard Gorge

Great Ocean Road Tour
........London Bridge. All amazing sights to see (and a million more of my photos can be found here!!




on the way back to the city, we stopped at the Noodle Canteen at Colac for dinner
Dinner - Noodle Canteen, Colac
lemongrass & chilli vegie noodles


Dinner - Noodle Canteen, Colac
sweet chilli chicken noodles

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Melbourne!!! Day 2 - busy busy!!

We started our day with a bit of breakfast from McDonalds.
breakfast
mmmmm pancakes!

breakfast
Janet had a bacon & egg roll

Melbourne Zoo
Then we caught a tram to the Melbourne Zoo. We were a bit early, so we had to wander around aimessly for a while waiting for it to open!  The zoo was the place I really wanted to go to while we were in Melbourne. And I took about a million photos, so will share just a few here...

Melbourne Zoo
Meer Cat

Melbourne Zoo
Gorilla! - We stood and wached the gorillas for ages - they were enjoying a feed of spinach!

Melbourne Zoo
We also got to see the baby elephant!!
Melbourne Zoo
And of course, my favourite - Giraffes! Janet told me that they didn't have giraffes at this zoo, so I was very excited to see that they actually did!!
Melbourne Zoo

Melbourne Zoo

Melbourne Zoo
Lion

Melbourne Zoo
Brown Bear

After the zoo, we hopped back on the tram, and jumped off at the Queen Victoria Markets for a quick look around.
Churros
we managed to squeeze in time for some lunch
healthy lunch!
yes, we ate churros for lunch. We shared a bag of 7. for $6. delicious! Although I did get rather covered in icing sugar!
Queen VIctoria Markets

We then headed for Federation Square, because we had tickets for a very important event.
Federation Square

P1050405
This is the whole reason we were in Melbourne!!
Abba World
The Abba World exhibition was really good! They had heaps of the actual costumes, instuments and other ABBA memorabillia, as well as interactive sections where you got to sing with ABBA, dance in a video clip etc etc. We had a great time!



Abba World

Abba World

Of course, all that ABBA-ing makes you hungry, so we went over the road to "Lord of the Fries" for some dinner!!
Lord of the Fries

Lord of the Fries
how exciting! a vegetarian burger place!!! I want one in Brisbane!! please!!!
Lord of the Fries
JAnet had the French-Canadian Fries, or Poutine, which was fries with cheese and gravy

Lord of the Fries
I went for an original burger, which was fantastic! loved it!! the burger patty was delicious, the sauces, the pickle, everything was just as a burger should be!

And after all that healthy eating (just as well we also did A LOT of walking) it was back to our hotel for some sleep!

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Melbourne!!! Day 1 - Dinner

We went for a quick trip to Melbourne - we flew down with Tiger Airways, which had bargain priced tickets - it just meant waiting around at the airport for a rather long time after checking in.  Our plane left a bit later that scheduled, which meant we arrived in Melbourne a little late for the bus we had booked to take us to the hotel.  So as soon as we walked across the tarmac and out onto the footpath (yes, we never actually set foot inside the Melbourne Airport), the bus company was on the phone asking us where we were. We did make it onto the bus, so all was good! (We weren't the last ones on either!) 

After we checked into the hotel, we popped back out to find some dinner.  It was almost 10pm, on a Thursday night. We ended up finding this place situated quite nearby, opposite a Hungry Jacks and a Nandos (which was about to hit closing time).  We asked the lady inside when they closed and she said midnight, so in we went to Cafe Tono


We were the only customers, and they were in the process of mopping the floor. We ordered our food, and watched as it was created behind the counter.  The pasta sauce was freshly made for my spaghetti napolitana - the chef was whizzing up tomatoes and things with a stick blender right in the frying pan.  We watched the pizza being created, and as it cooked, the pizza chef was busy prepping more dough for future pizzas - he was making perfectly portioned balls of dough.

I was presented with a humungous plate of spaghetti.  Spaghetti Napolitana is one of my most favourite meals, and I am often disapointed, because the sauce doesn't live up to my expectaions (basically, I want something better than I can make myself!).  This time there was no disapointment - it was delicious! I only wish I had been able to eat the whole plate - but the large serve defeated me about 2 thirds of the way through.


Janet's meat lovers pizza was also a hit - the base tasted deliciously fresh, and it had a good amount of meat and sauce.  I was half wishing I had ordered a pizza, until I tasted my pasta!

Then it was back to our hotel for some sleep in readiness for the next day. (thats not our hotel in the picture - its just some pretty lights we saw on our wander)