(Australia) Tuesday, March 23

Tuesday, March 23^rd

 10 am

 We’re off on the next leg of our trip.  We just got to the Sydney airport to fly to Melbourne.  We definitely looked like tourists as we wheeled our luggage during rush hour down the street to the train – at least Mark didn’t have a camera around his neck. 

We’re both looking forward to seeing more of the country, but we loved Sydney.  It is a beautiful, clean city – very pedestrian friendly, with a great mass transit network of trains, monorails, undergrounds, buses, and water taxis.  The views were spectacular from just about everywhere.  I don’t know what we were expecting about the city, but we were pleasantly surprised. 

We have to tell on ourselves about dinner last night.  We made reservations for dinner at Quay Restaurant, which is at the end of one of the piers overlooking Sydney harbor and the opera house.   It is renowned for it’s food and views.  We thought it would be wonderful place for a splurge for our last night in Sydney.  We’ve been eating late lunches and have been so tired at night that we haven’t eaten out.  We were looking forward to trying Mod Oz cuisine.  When we sat down and the menu was “explained” to us, Mark and I both looked at each other and then discussed how we could gracefully and tactfully leave.  You are given a choice of a 4 course meal for $155/person or a 7 course meal for $199/person.  The price was steep, but what made it even harder to swallow was the selections.  I’m not sure creative even fully describes it.  Well, we got up the courage to tell the waiter that this just wasn’t the type of food we were expecting and thank you very much, but….  They were very gracious and we left there in almost a quick trot.  We found a place very near (Peter Doyle’s) that had delicious fish and it had the same spectacular view.   Check out the dinner menu at http://www.quay.com.au/files/quay_dinner_menu_100310.pdf and see if there’s much that sounds very appealing to you all!

6 pm

Okay, life is just not fair sometimes.  When we were standing at the security line to get on the plane this morning, Mark realized he still had his pocket knife and fingernail clippers in his pocket.  He threw them in the bottom of our carry on and went through the line without a hitch.  I was stopped because I had nail nippers in my purse.  Now mind you, the US TSA allows them, but Australian security doesn’t.  Oh well, the Nugent side of the family will understand that we don’t go anywhere without nail nippers.  I’ll have to find a “chemist” shop and buy new ones!!!!

It was a pretty drive from Melbourne out to the Yarra Valley this afternoon.  It’s about an hour east of Melbourne.  The town we are staying in is a pretty small town – not as small as Oakville, but not as large as Yountville in Napa.  We’re staying at an old inn and pub, so the pace is much slower here than in Sydney.  We went to a couple of wineries near here this afternoon and right now we’re sitting on the balcony relaxing before dinner.  It’s definitely cooler here than in Sydney – about 68-70° this afternoon here we are taking advantage of it. 

We thought it was maybe just in Sydney, but this is a coffee drinking society.  I’ve never seen so many coffee shops.  Surprisingly we’ve only seen a couple of Starbucks though out of all of the ones we’ve seen.  We have seen a number of McCafes which only serve coffees and desserts.  Even one of the wineries we went in today had an espresso/cappuccino machine behind the counter where we were tasting wine. Probably not a bad idea if you’ve done too much wine tasting – although I think there’s an expression about drinking coffee after drinking, you’re just an awake drunk!