A Weekend Adventure in Melbourne, Australia

How can one describe a weekend  Melbourne?

The 5pm rush hour on a Friday night – when it takes a Shuttle bus an hour to get from Southern Cross Station to Novotel in Collins St – a 20 minute walk,  we later discovered.

The late nite cafes in the Block and Royal Arcades – friendly people, variety of delicious food and live music on Friday and Saturday eves.

All the Laneways – the shopping, businesses, cafes – always crowded, the architecture, the Chocolate shops!

The David Shepherd Shoe Shop in Collins St – a Huge Array of  fantastic footwear  - which I had forgotten about til the last hour before we had to come home.

The Lindi Chocolate Café next door – ideal to recover and reenergize for more shopping.

And the Gazi Greek Restaurant – so popular that you have to book – any time you want to come along – and interesting décor in the toilets.

And then there is the eclectic Curtin House in Swanston St – known as one of Melbourne’s  ‘Vertical Laneways’ – full of Thai Restaurants, art spaces, bars and a roof top bar which shows films from time to time – we love the ambience and food of “Cookie,’ which if busy, has a cosy champagne bar tucked around the corner.

Not to mention Chinatown and the Greek Quarters…..which we did not have time to explore this visit….

Federation Square with its street theatre and interactive art and technology exhibitions, the aboriginal art, is always on our list to check out and over the bridge, the National Gallery of Victoria which currently has an exhibition by the famous portrait photographer Edward Steichen.

Then there is the walk along Southbank, Skydeck  for panoramic views over the city, the Aquarium, DFO shopping centre……

We did not get to the beautiful  St Kilda Beach, the Restaurants in Lygon St, the shops in Chapel or Richmond Streets!  Or Victoria Market. Or to the James Bond Exhibition….   Sigh….  I guess that is all the more reason to return to this exciting city of Melbourne with all its history, architecture, shops, walkways, nooks and crannies and……….

Impressions of Belfast, Ireland

It was most valuable to have a tour guide introduce us to Belfast, Ireland - she quickly gave us a feel of the city and its history. As we travelled around in our bus,admiring and hearing history of the buildings, visiting landmarks such as the Falls Road area, the International wall - spotlessly kept, and the Peace wall - with murals covered in grafitti of quotes and supports of sympathy, it was interestng to note that the tour qiuide referred to the citizens as ‘them’ and ‘us.’ Belfast, as well as being famous for the ‘Troubles,' and the scene of much 'spilled blood,' is also the birthplace of Mother Theresa, Milk of Magnesia and Dunlop Tyres and portable defribulators. The defribulators were invented at the local Hospital which was named after the highly regarded Queen Victoria. Today was the day that Queen Elizabeth was visiting Belfast, and the dubious summer weather kept the rain away for her garden party of 20,000 guests. We always seemed to be about half a mile away from her, and when we visted the new Belfast Titanic exhibition centre she had already been and gone. The iconic Belfast Titanic Centre building (nicknamed 'The Iceberg' by Belfast residents), erected on Titanic's original construction site the Harland and Wolff yards, was opened in March 2012 and by July had received over 250,000 visitors. Everything about the building is relative to Titanic and the sea, for example the height of the building is the same as the bow, and an inside wall is constructed of similar materials to that of Titanic. In Belfast City a memorial has been erected to recognise the people who died in the Titanic disaster. Everyone is named on the memorial. The memorial receives many viistors, including descendents who become quite emotional during their visit. Our Shopping Adventure in Belfast. The English Food Market is an interesting place for travellers to visit - such a variety of beautifully presented fresh seafood, meats, vegetables, oh and chcolate, which we all gorged on! Then it was off to explore the nooks and crannies of the shopping centre. Then we espied a shop selling leather goods owned by an Irishman who immediately had us in fits of laugher with his stories. And yes, we bought....

NewGrange, Slane Castle and Mellifont Abbey, near Slane, Ireland

Today was our historical sites of Ireland adventure. We were very fortunate to have the opportunity to visit the NewGrange mount as bookings need to be made months ahead and visits are strictly controlled.The largest of 12 mounds in the area, and only discovered in 1969, until recently people could drive up to it at their leisure. As it’s significance and mystique grew, so did its visitors, so much so that 10 years ago a visitor center, 10 kms away was contstructed, and today visitors are bussed to the site. It was quite awe inspiring to stand inside the perfectly dry, igloo shaped 5000 year old space inside the mound and experience a reconstruction of the sun passing though a slit in the mound as it has always done in the winter solstace. Then it was on though the Battle of Boynes area to visit Slane Castle, built in 1701 and still in use today. Each year it plays host to concerts of up to 80,000 people performed by musicians such as Madonna, Queen and U2, who stayed there for six weeks. Very plain inside by most castle standards, and rebirbished after a fire in 1991, the castle could be best described as ‘shabby chic.’ Today one can hire the whole castle for weddings and stay in tastefully refurbished bedrooms originally occupied by various dukes, rock stars and servants. After invading a restaurant in a quaint village nearby we travelled to the pristine ruins of Mellifont Abbey. Founded in 1142 on the orders of St Malachy, this was the first catholic monastry in Ireland adapted from St Benedicts cisterism in Burgundy. Becuse the austere lifestyle became so popular, many similar abbeys were constructed arount Ireland. However they also became very wealthy, so much so that they were closed down in 1539 by Henry v1111. Today the Abbey is very much alive offering people who prefer the monastic way of life opportunities to work on its extensive land area, on the farm, garden centre, or in the printing press. This site was excavated in 1954 and today all the monasteries are protected.

Ah - Naples, Pompei and Sorrento

Our cruise ship the Costa Serena's last port of call was Naples. Anxious to view Mt Vesuvious we were up early an high up on deck, however mist shrouded this famous mountain and instead we were reduced to viewing the many superyachts lounging about -ready to hibernate for winter. Soon we were on a bus travelling to Sorrento, a quaint seaside tourist town. We left the port, passing many very shabby apartment buildings in the Naples city centre, boarded a train and travelled for about an hour through the Naples suburbs and surrounds. The land is very fertile, our guide informed us and it was interesting to see gardens, lemon tree plantations and glass houses dotted everywhere throughout the suburbs. Upon our arrival at Sorrento, we were directed to a place to have a 'technical' stop, which meant a toilet and coffee break. The local coffee is excellent here. I think it is Neopolitan. It has a unique taste and I have to say that coffee has never tasted the same since - it was so delicious! Off we went on our walking tour. Sorrento is old historic, quaint and very tourist orientated. The streets are narrow - many are just walkways and the whole place is geared for local and upmarket shopping. As it was near Xmas the town was decorated - Christmas trees, leafy bowers under windows and Xmas lights everywhere! It must look so picturesque at night!
Eventually we arrived at the water's edge. Er - not exactly - we were about 50 metres above the water on top of a rocky cliff. In Sorrento it is difficult to get to the sea. And there is no beach! Instead people have to pay to sunbathe on piers stretching over the beautiful, clear, blue waters. At last our walking tour ended -not surprisingly, at a pre arranged shop from where we could purchase almost anything made of and to do with lemons - from a huge array of sweets to lemoncellos presented in most decorative bottles, handcrafts and ornaments.

Thankfully we did not have much time to contribute to the local economy and shop - the prices were Definately for the Well Heeled Traveller, and soon we were back on the train. Oh, look! There are the ruins of Pompei! Why didn't we visit them? other Cruise Ship visitors confirmed what we suspected - one needed a whole day to inspect the genuine and replica ruins on display. I would like to come back to Naples and visit the Pompei ruins, and also inspect the city centre - a group of very tall newish glass buildings soaring like a sore tooth out of the eyesores of apartments in the suburbs by the port's edge.

And now it is back to the Costa Serena and get ready to finish our Italiabn cruise ship adventure at Slovena.

Ports of Call when on a cruise ship around Italy

The first port that our cruise ship Costa Serena berthed at was Bari. As we were to be there for about 4 hours we did not take a tour but walked around the shops then the old town. Being the end of the tourist and summer season, it was very quiet and the street paving in the old town were so white that they looked as if they had been scrubbed clean. Many streets were narrow and resident's laundry hung from balconies above. The laundry was often covered with sheets of plastic, whether to protect it from the rain, or pidgeons, we were not too sure. From the wide walkways around the water's edge it was obvious that Bari would have been a seaside paradise for crowds of holiday makers during the summer season. Our next port of call was the Island of Corfu.This trip rather challenged our holiday timetable becuase the cruise ship was passing from one time zone in Italy, to another in Greece, so we had to arise an hour earlier in the morning to go ashore - dreadful for people like me who do absolutely everything on a cruise ship! Many resort hotels, restaurants and bars on Corfu had closed for the season, which meant that the only tour groups visiting the churches and monuments were from our cruise ship. Corfu is best known for tourism and olive oil production and its seven months of summer! The waters are calm and deep blue and the scenery - awesome! No wonder many people cruise here and also to the many islands of nearby Croatia.
Next we visited Valetta on the Island of Malta. We arrived at dawn, weaving and turning on a five cent piece to get into the narrow entrance of the harbour. Many of the old towns have fortress have walls built right at the water's edge and the houses on the cliff faces above - exactly as you see on pics of Malta. Our walking tour group were all English speaking, and we had a hilarous time laughing with everyone.This was most refreshing as on the ship many languages were spoken so it was good to have a few laughs in English with everyone, including the tour guide. Valetta is very well set up for shopping, and many people in our group peeled off to do so. After we visited St John's Cathedral which houses the tombs of 400 knights of Malta (this was a most interesting story in itself) there were only 4 of us left of our group! So we had a quick peek at an exhibition of Flemish tapestries - not part of the "official" tour then repaired to enjoy the local (and famous) local beer at one of the local cafes. Because it was the beginning of the quiet season in Valetta and Malta we were able to enjoy a conversation with our waitress, an Australian lady who had come to Malta for a holiday and met a man - yes 25 years later she was still here. She told us she misses the mountains and open spaces and if she ever returned to Australia, she might never return!

We had a chuckle upon returning to our cruise ship Costa Serena. Becuase it was such a fine sunny day everyone had gone to the upper decks to sunbathe. And what outfits! No, not bikinis, g's or even shorts! Yes - jeans, boots, jackets, overcoats, topped off with Costa Serena black and yellow check woollen blankets! I kid you not....

Flight called - and more champagne - will write soon....

From New York to Newport - and that bus ride

After a hectic 4 days in New York we left by the very fast Amtrak train to Providence.

It was midday Sunday, very warm and sunny. The station at Providence was newish spacious, and with very few people about. The buildings around the station were of light orange/beige brick and looked newish. A newer building was advertising luxury apartments, which overlooked a very small river. After looking everywhere for street signs we finally located the bus center and strolled over, to join a variety of people who were waiting for the bus.

Eventually it arrived, late, and with a lot of friendly bantering, everybody got on. The bus driver seemed to know everyone, and it felt as if we were all going on a Sunday jaunt.

Then with a jerk, we roared off!The good homour and commoraderie continued as we lurched here, sped there, stopped at the lights, and at most of the bus stops on the way as we picked up and dropped off passengers.

Then "Driver - there is Miss Jackson!You must stop for her!!" We lurched to a stop and the elderly Miss Jackson, who was dressed all in white, even to white stockings over her dark skinned legs, was helped onto the bus. The then ensured a long friendly debate over whether the bus was late, or the next schedulled one, early. Finally some sort of conclusion was reached and we all held on as the bus took off again and sped off.

Speed limit? What speed limit? This bus had one speed and that was fast! We - the only tourists on the bus had to keep our eyes open without blinking so we could enjoy the scenery as we beetled along.

Finally, after travelling through several long single street towns, we finally reached Newport Rhode Island.

And that is another story.....