Yearly Archives: 2023

After a very long flight, we arrived in Melbourne. The flight was supposed to take nearly 16 hours from Los Angeles to Melbourne, but we had favorable headwinds, and actually arrived quite early — it was more like 14½ hours. We were met, as arranged, by our Tour Director, Matt. He gathered five of us up, and took us to a Mercedes “van”, we loaded our luggage and ourselves into the van, and took off for our hotel. Matt stayed behind because he had other tour group members to meet.

Not my actual room, but very close On arrival at our hotel — the Pan Pacific Melbourne — I checked in, and immediately went up to my room to take a shower. After a very long flight, that was absolutely necessary! This is what my room looked like: Really quite nice!

After my very refreshing shower, I met up with the other four fellow travellers, and we decided to go exploring Melbourne. We were relatively fresh, despite the long flight, because we had managed to get a reasonable amount of sleep on the flight. Matt recommended that we take the City Circle tram to get a good overview of the city. In the Central Business District (CBD), all trams are free, and this includes the City Circle tram. The difference is that the other trams are sleek, modern trams, while the City Circle tram is of an older vintage — actually, they keep them updated and well-appointed, just that they intentionally keep the older trams for picturesque purposes. So the five of us set off on foot, following the suggestions of the hotel concierge, along the banks of the Yarra River. This turned out to be an excellent choice, as the river banks are very interesting, and there are lots of restaurants. The concierge had suggested eating at the Casino, which this is surrounded by what amounts to a mall, with all kinds of food establishments. We found some really good pasta salads and sandwich-style food, and some excellent coffee, and had lunch. Melbourne is famous for being a foodie city, and in particular for its excellent coffee. After lunch, we set off again on foot, crossed a bridge over the river, and picked up the City Circle tram on the other side. It was a great experience! In order to find the right tram stop, and the right tram, we asked a number of people, and ended up talking to a very helpful woman who was waiting at the tram stop. She turned out to be the driver of the City Circle tram! She was taking over as driver at that very stop. So, when the tram arrived, she got into the driver compartment, and we mounted the main section of the tram. During the ride, we met, and got into conversation with, a number of interesting people, and took many photos. Jennifer, our friendly and helpful tram driver We travelled around the whole circle, and then got off and walked back to the hotel by another bridge. An interesting design for a pedestrian bridge across the Yarra River By that time, we were all pretty tired (the weather had turned quite warm), so I went back to my room to freshen up, and rest for a while before we met up with Matt for his introductory/welcome talk. It looks like Matt will be a very good tour guide. Our original plans for a dinner sponsored by Vantage (our tour company) were postponed because several of our fellow travellers had had problems with connecting flights and were delayed. Matt had to go out to meet them, and so we rearranged the dinner for the next evening. Several of us decided that we would take one of Matt’s recommendations and have dinner at a Thai restaurant located on south bank of…

On this day, our tour guide Matt took us on a bus tour of Melbourne. We drove through parts of the city, seeing lots of interesting features and architecture, and some upper echelon shopping areas. Then we were taken to St. Kilda’s, a beach community that apparently is both popular and high end. In particular, we stopped at Luna Park, which is a fun park, allegedly a rite of passage for teen birthdays and such. We continued to drive around, and then had to return to the hotel to pick up some fellow travellers who had been delayed in their flights. This was a very busy day for Matt, who had to track them all down. From there, we were driven to the Shrine of Remembrance.

The Shrine of Remembrance honors Australian and New Zealand military members who died during WW1, WW2, and other conflicts. It is a very impressive memorial; a moving experience. From the top we found a wonderful 360 degree view of Melbourne. The city is impressive, not least for its varied and innovative architecture.