Melbourne is an incredible city. Always recounted in second place after Sydney, it is every bit as vibrant and more accessible. Melbourne is situated on a bay that connects to the Pacific Ocean. It boasts beautiful beaches, a river through the city and several large parks. Like Seattle, it has neighborhoods each with its own feel and culture. It has the best public transport system in the world; one that combines trains, trams and buses. An hour from the city, you can be on a vineyard, a farm, a golf course, a great hike and the famous Great Ocean Road. Melbourne is known as the sports capital of Australia and houses the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground.
We sought the city out in many ways - traveling on tram, eating our way through the Queen Victoria Market, walking through the Royal Botanical Gardens for a whole day, seeing the moon through the large telescopes at the Observatory, sitting on its beaches and visiting its farms.
Hard as it is to believe, we have been here for seven days and I have to say that I absolutely love Melbourne. We closed our stay by spending the morning walking through Yarra Bend Park. Early during our walk, we came upon seven kayakers playing what looked like Australian Water Polo. A fun game of jostling around in water hot in the pursuit of a ball that is shot through a net that hangs off a bridge! Only in Australia!
The afternoon was spent wandering through the intimate, rich and vibrant laneways of the city. Small lanes and alleys packed with fantastic hole-in-the-wall eateries and quaint shops.
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