Melbourne, Australia

We were supposed to have gone to Phillip Island last night. We would have had to tender in and they were afraid that it would be dangerous to tender up and back at night. So our tour to see the penguins was canceled and rescheduled for a longer tour from Melbourne. Upon closer inspection I found out that it was a two or two and one half hour ride each way and then if conditions were right you could see Fairy Penguins, whatever they are, jump out of the water for 20 minutes at about sunset.. Dinner was included if you could call it dinner. They were to stop at a very ordinary cafeteria and you could buy whatever slop you wanted. Oh num. I’ve seen penguins. I’ve had bus rides. I have eaten in cafeterias. None of the above gets me real excited and surely not excited enough to ride in a bus for four or five hours. The entire tour was supposed to be two and one half hours from Phillip Island.

We did get up before breakfast again and had room service. These morning tours are killing me. I’ve hardly digested the dinners from last night and now I have to get up and eat breakfast. But we did manage to get down to the bus for a three and one half hour tour. It was called the no walking tour. After driving around for about half an hour we stopped at a park and gardens and walked. It was Sunday here and the place was full of people walking and running. Many had dogs of all sizes and some more then one. It got crowded at times and we were continually bumping into people until we figured out these dummies not only drove on the wrong side of the road, they also walked on the wrong side of the side walk. This park was very hilly. I was real good at walking the down hill parts but then started looking for a fork lift to get me back up. Enough of that. This exercise crap can kill you. I won’t try that again.

We continued on and the driver/guide was very good and a real friendly guy. Everyone liked this city even better then Sydney. It is pretty spread out and is a city of about three and a half million people. This town too, is very clean.

There was a free bus from the pier to the center of down town. After lunch Bobbi and I went on that bus alone. There were stores of every kind you can think of from junk to very up scale. We went to a couple of junk stores and got more junk. If you go into these authentic souvenir stores they make up stories about special aborigine tools they want to sell you. All Bobbi needs is a quick story and she wants to buy this junk even if it weighs more then she does. If you need a good laugh just ask me about the special ceremonial potato digging stick and of course the every day special potato digging stick.

We walked around for a couple of hours. Everyone was friendly on these streets. Then we got back on the bus and went back to the ship.

Melbourne is a great town. It had far less rain then Sydney and is quite a bit cooler and still never gets much below 40 or 50 degrees in the winter. This must be true because there are palm trees that could not live in cooler weather. It has a large harbor and many marinas and a river that is navigable for over 50 miles. Anything you can think of seems to be available. If something happened where I got real mad at Bobbi and had to leave her here I wouldn’t have to feel too bad about it at all.

Melbourne Sherm Out

(Posted on behalf of Sherman Rootberg)