Melbourne Es Muey Bueno

So, yesterdays stop was Melbourne. We didn't have any organized tours set up, so we did it on our own. They have a very nice tram system in town. You buy a one day pass at the end of the tram line and that is good for unlimited use that day. Once you get downtown, there are 2 different free trams to get you around.

I keep trying to think of a good way to compare and contrast Sydney to Melbourne. Melbourne has a great amount of new and old architecture readily available. There were lots of young people. I am sure that the fact that we saw the entrance to China town was a huge influence in this note, but I sure saw lots of sushi restaurants. What was kind of cool was that most had rolls (maki) that weren't already cut up. Made them "fast food". If I had been hungry, I might have bought one to try. The price was surely right. Most of the rolls were less than $3. I didn't see as much nigiri, but it might have been in the back and not usually sold as a take-a-way.

We just kind of bumbled along, doing the tourist gawking thing. Charles and Elizabeth wanted to see the Jail Museum. The rest of us magnanimously offered to sit in a pub and wait for them. What a great decision that was. We found The Oxford Scholar pub and hotel. They had a large screen TV that had just recently started playing the Giants Packers game. So, we sat, had a large quantity of Amber lager and made a lot of noise. Interestingly, there were 3 different small groups of Americans who live in Melbourne that came to talk to us ... small world. The proprietor of the pub came out at one time and gave us hats and koozies to remember the place by. I don't know about you, but great local beer, great food and a HUGE TV are memorable :)

All in all, it was a great day!