Babymoon

Last weekend Hubby and I flew down to Melbourne for a three day "babymoon" (This is apparently the technical term used for the last holiday before your baby is born)..

Anyway, we flew out at stupid O'Clock on Friday morning and arrived in Melbourne at 9am their time.. (yes, our flight took off at 6am).. They have a great airport bus which takes you into the city and drops you at the main transit station in the city, which was both easier, and heaps cheaper than a taxi! We were delighted to find that it was only a 300m walk from the transit station to our hotel.. The fact that we picked the 'seedy' end of town to stay is beside the point..

What a great weekend! We went to the Vic markets and wandered around there for a few hours, then in the evening we wandered into the city in search of something to eat from one of the cafes the Melbourne is famous for... We walked for probably an hour before eventually finding a cafe and collapsing gratefully into the chair and ordering a YUMMY meal.

Something else I noted about the food there is that it's so cheap to eat out! For example, Hubby and I both had a good dinner, and a drink, and we paid less than $30.00.. That's lunchtime prices at home!!

We stopped in at Myer and queued to have a look at the Myer Christmas display in the windows. This year the story was based on a book called Wombat Divine about a wombat who wants to be in the Christmas play but can't find a role that suits him. Eventually he ends up being the baby Jesus.. It was a fantastic story, and as usual, the display itself was incredible!!!

Saturday we were up bright and early and on the tram to go to St Kilda. I love trams. Anyway, we had a great walk around, took some photos of the cake shops on the main street, walked back along the beach and down the big pier. Then back to the main street for a Gelati via Luna Park.. I always wanted to go to Luna Park in Sydney, so to go to the Melbourne one was great!!

Then we caught the tram back into the city and thought about going to the Aquarium before saying that we had already seen the one at the Sunshine Coast, and I have been to both in Sydney, and we would rather go to the Old Melbourne Gaol instead. That place is CREEPY!! But so interesting!! It's amazing to learn about the people who were there and the life of the prisoners.. They even had a bit of a play about Ned Kelly (as he was hanged at that Gaol). Absolutely amazing... All I can say is that I'm glad I wasn't a criminal back then... Not that I am one now though...

Then we walked back to the hotel through the city shops and arcades and basically took in the sights. The old shot tower is encased in the middle of a shopping centre. It's great to see so many of the heritage buildings have been preserved in their original place and condition, unlike Brisbane for example, who dismantle the heritage listed stuff, build massive horrible buildings on the site and then re-construct the facade of the heritage building somewhere near where it used to be.. Or Sydney, where they just knock it down and build stuff on top..

Saturday evening we had dinner with some friends of Hubby's, and then went over to the Casino complex for a wander around and to watch the Christmas display there..

Sunday morning we met up with our friends again and had a look through the MFB museum (Melbourne's Urban Fire Brigade). There was some interesting history there, and we got a behind the scenes tour of some of the old alarm switchboard things and other stuff that there is no room in the museum for as Hubby's friend does a lot of volunteer work there and has keys to all the storage rooms etc. Then Hubby and his mate went looking at firestations and I went shopping with Chantell. We didn't do a lot of shopping, but had a great wander around a very large shopping centre somewhere (I have no idea where I was)...

Then in the afternoon, Hubby and I went up Rialto Tower to the observation deck! What a view!!! It was great to be able to see the places we had been over the weekend and get a bit of a feel for the whole city.. Amazing.

We are home again now, and back to work yesterday.. Will try and post some photos of our "babymoon", and also some baby belly pictures soon! I am starting to get quite big!