Marvelous Melbourne

Just on the heels of our trip to Canberra, we were off to Melbourne last weekend for the Spry Christmas party. Since we left on Thursday night, last week was a 3-day work week... nice!

There were delays flying in and out of Sydney due to a shortage of air traffic controllers. The staff are (quite fairly I think) declining to work overtime shifts. On the way out, we were delayed before boarding the flight which turned out to be good since we ran into friends Malcolm & Cath who were also on their way to Melbourne for a long weekend. We had dinner on the plane (best airline veggie food I'd ever had!) and went straight to the hotel and to sleep around midnight.

Friday was a cool day. We took the tram to St Kilda, Melbourne's harbourside suburb, that has a street famous for its cake shops. The 7 of us (6 adults, 1 baby) congregated inside a cake shop at little tables and "ooo'ed and ah'ed" over the sugary concoctions. After consuming a pastry lunch (spinach & cheese) and an enormous piece of baklava, we went our separate ways for the afternoon. Bernard and I walked around St Kilda a bit and then took the tram back to Prahran where I'd heard there would be good shops. The area was interesting and the shops were ok. Mostly it was good to be out walking off the pastry. Our last stop was a fresh food market where we picked up some fresh pasta, fresh sauce and salad ingredients for the very much healthier dinner that we all needed. Andy, Philippa and their baby joined us for dinner in our room. That was fun and a bit funny since it took all of the tiny pots from our room plus a couple from their room to cook 4 servings of pasta.

Saturday was brisk at 8 degrees Celsius (46F) when we woke up and a max of 13C (55F)... and it's supposed to be nearly summer! After breakfast at a cafe in one of the lovely charming laneways, Bernard and I took the tram to Fitzroy for some walking and shopping. Bernard was not keen. Besides a bit of hail during breakfast, it was raining in spurts and, as previously mentioned, cold. Nonetheless, we had a great day. We managed to be inside during most of the rain and the shops were good. After a stop for morning tea, we found ourselves late in the day without lunch and far away from the place that had attracted Bernard's attention, Vegie Bar. We decided to take the long way back to that cafe so we could see some different things. That led us to sheltering in a cute shop full of handprinted fabric goods. The one thing that we bought for ourselves came from there - a big green floor/couch cushion to give some contrasting colour in our living room (in the photo of cushions, the one we chose is the botanical print shown on the white cushion and it's printed in shades of green on the lighter green fabric that's also shown). We were still a long way from the intended lunch spot but the rain had stopped so we pressed on through the cold with the big cushion bag flying around in the wind and we finally arrived at the cafe... a large, warm, warehouse-y space with big serves of healthy looking, reasonably priced, vegetarian food... that it was full of university students is hardly surprising. It was so warm! We split a beer and a tasty pile of roasted veggies with tzatziki and hummus on the side.

Saturday night was the big dinner. I didn't know much about the restaurant except that their veggie menu sounded unusual. The restaurant was Jacques Reymond. It's in a lovely old house on the southern side of Melbourne and it's a hatted restaurant... 3 hats, the top rating in the Australian restaurant rating system. The food and wine was all excellent, over indulgent, but very nice.

On Sunday we were all feeling like we'd had a big night out so we went back to Vegie Bar for breakfast. After packing up and checking out of our room, Bernard and I wandered around a bit and had lunch at Greenhouse by Joost, a temporary cafe at Federation Square. It's made from all recycled/repurposed materials and they grow veggies on the roof that are served in the cafe. The outdoor furniture is made of street signs and the indoor furniture is reclaimed wood. The food was served on big slabs of wood that were left from making the chairs and tables and it was quite yummy. My coffee was served in a recycled glass jar and salad was served in a little metal bowl that was made from a steel can with the cut edge rolled slightly. This all sounds nutty but it was definitely an interesting experience. And then we were off to the airport and home in time for dinner.