Friday, October 25th, 2013
After a great sleep in Susan's guest room we enjoyed an easy morning and hearty breakfast before heading out on a walking tour of Sunbury. We headed first past a man-made lake in the shape of Australia where we observed (and smelled!) huge flocks of odorous ibis nesting. The lake is within the grounds of Rupertswood mansion where the first Ashes cricket tournament was held.
Sunbury is home of "the Ashes" and, apparently, anyone who follows cricket knows about this annual cricket match between England and Australia. In 1882 Sir Rupert Clark invited the English cricket team to spend Christmas at his mansion and play a friendly cricket match with the Australians. Following the match Sir Rupert's wife burned the bails and declared the ashes would, from then on, be presented to the winner of an annual match.
We then walked up Jackson's Hill to a very old and beautiful building, Caloola - first used as an orphan's industrial school, then an asylum, next a university and is now sitting mostly empty. When we visited today it was the set for filming a series 2 episode of an ABC program called Dr. Blake.
Our two hour walk gave us a good feeling about Sunbury - a beautiful community of about 33,000. I can see why Susan loves it here!
Following lunch at Susan's we all packed up and caught the train to Melbourne for a girl's weekend in the city. After checking into our hotel we took off to explore. First, Queen Victoria Market where we bought coffee and treats to enjoy as we walked around. Unfortunately we were too late to see much on offer as most were packing up for the day. What I most enjoyed was the fish market - it amazed me to see the humongous variety of seafoods available. Even abalone is now being successfully farmed and small abalone, about the size of the palm of my hand, could be purchased for $5.00 each! I sure wish we were going somewhere to cook this evening - it was hard to pass those up!
With the market shutting down we decided to tram-hop and see where they took us. My feet needed the rest!! Once we were ready for dinner, we explored Lygon Street - famous for multicultural eateries and, especially, the Italian influence. What an experience that was!!! At least 2 blocks of wall to wall Italian restaurants with hard-selling proprietors outside trying to lure us into their establishments with offers of free bottles of wine and desserts. The gauntlet was overwhelming and enough to turn us right off Italian food. We moved on to a little bar where we enjoyed a drink and tapas plate before heading to a Vietnamese Pho and Noodle house. Tina had read a book with pho important to the story line and wanted to try it. Susan is travelling to Vietnam in two weeks and was also game. So in we went! The place was packed with university students (pho is not expensive). Susan and I thoroughly enjoyed our huge bowls but Tina couldn't eat hers. She had added too many of the optional peppers served on the side with basil and bean sprouts and subsequently found her meal way too spicy!
Friday night and the city was lit up and bustling. While looking for a route and means of transport to get back to our hotel, we happened upon large numbers of people hovering around tents set up in a park. When we went over to investigate we discovered it was an Italian Gelato Tasting! There were 8 large tents and one flavour of gelato was being offered from each of the four sides of many of them. After purchasing a ticket that offered five tastings, ticket-holders were asked to vote on their favourite flavour. We joined in the tasting, of course. Delicious and unique flavour combinations were on offer. What better way to end an evening of pho?!
Once we arrived back at our hotel, Susan retrieved the pedometer she'd been wearing. We had walked 21,000 steps today!
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