G'day mate - Tracie's down under adventure! Day Three. (lots of pics in this one!)

[Guest]

Day Three - Monday 2nd Oct - Half-day city tour, Melbourne Old Gaol and Meet Your Neighbours night


Woke up REALLY early today, had to be at our pick-up point for our city tour at 8:20am. We had chosen to do a half-day one, which ended at 12:30pm so we could visit the famous Melbourne Old Gaol in the afternoon. I like to do city tours when i can as i think it gives you a good overview of the city's layout and you have an idea of where you'd like to visit a bit more. We saw all the sights, including Fitzroy Gardens, the Royal Botantical Gardens (where Captain Cook’s cottage is), the Olympic sites, and the fabulous exclusive beach surburbs of South Melbourne and Albert Park (now i know where i'm moving to when i win the lottery!).


Captain Cook's cottage in Fitzroy Gardens


The Shrine of Rememberance by the Royal Botanical Gardens


Gothic looking cathedral that i can't remember the name of!


South Melbourne seafront and ferry that goes over to Tasmania in the distance.

We got dropped back off at the tour offices and had a browse in one of the many shopping malls in the city centre then went to Wagamamas for lunch, i had what i usually have in London, the chicken Katsu curry, but it wasn't as nice to be honest!
We then popped back to our hotel so we could book our tour of the wineries for tomorrow and then went looking for the Melbourne Old Gaol, after taking the long route, involving the tram, metro train and foot, we made it, and then realised we could have walked it from our hotel in about 15 mins! *lol*
I have say, i personally found the Gaol quite spooky, even during the day full of people, it was easy to imagine all these poor souls looked in tiny cells for years on end, but it was very informative too, so i am glad i went. I don’t think I’d fancy the night-time ghost story tour they offer though, not if I wanted to sleep at night! *lol*







That evening we had tickets for the Meet Your Neighbours night at a British pub in St Kilda (I’d been looking forward to this for ages!) so we headed back to the hotel and got changed then caught the tram down. Meet Your Neighbours nights are held twice a week every week in Melbourne (and once a month in Sydney) and are very popular with the Brit tourists! You get to meet three members of the cast of Neighbours as well as participate in quizzes etc.The pub was packed out. We lucked out and got to meet the legend that is Harold Bishop, everyone loved him! As well as the actors who play Boyd Hoyland and Elle Robinson, it was meant to be Dan O’Connor who plays Ned instead of Kyall Marshall who plays Boyd, but he’d been held up filming so Kyall stepped in at the last minute. All three were really nice and spoke to everyone and took photos and signed autographs, and we had a great night, definately one of my Melbourne highlights!








We got back to the hotel around midnight and hit the sack as soon as we got in as we had another early start for our Yarra Valley wineries tour the next day.

Tip - Definately go to one of the Meet Your Neighbours nights if you are in Melbourne, a brilliant night out for those over 18.

[Guest]

Sounds like a good night out. Do you ever get to the Neighbours "road" in real life?

[Guest]

Do you mean 'Ramsey' st? Yep, it's a public road, well cul-de-sac, so anyone can go up there on non filming days, they have security there 24/7 though as apparently they have been getting a lot of trouble lately. I went there later on in my trip to Melbourne, i have lots of pics from that day!

[Guest]

Yes that is where I meant! We were there the last trip we did - tho no security at all! Sure the residents get really peed off!

[Guest]

hope you had a lovely time. I'm jealous. thats all my hubby goes on about is going to australia. He's started an aussie fund as well. I just want to go back to florida.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by snowfairy

hope you had a lovely time. I'm jealous. thats all my hubby goes on about is going to australia. He's started an aussie fund as well. I just want to go back to florida.

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Trust me, when you get there you'll fall in love with the place just like i did! I'd go back tomorrow if i could!

[Guest]

Know what you mean Tracie - we first went in 1991 and again in 2001. We would dearly like to emigrate - we have some very good friends down there. However we are both too old. So we are planning a retirement trip of up to 6 months - in a motorhome! Another 10 years or so to wait!

[highlander447]

A great day

[Guest]

You've got me swaying towards Oz Tracie... great pics

[rnoon]

Really enjoying these reports as DH and I are planning a 3 month holiday out there next year so this is very useful.

Row