Melbourne, VIC, Australia

After dropping off our car and walking to our hostel at the other end of the city, we checked into Greenhouse Backpackers on Flinders Lane (the most amazing location right in the centre of the city!). Not surprisingly as it was only 10:30 our room was not ready, so we stored our luggage and set off to see what had changed in Melbourne since we were last here in 2010.

Having done many of the “big sights” previously we went in search of something different at the TI and found some cool walking tours of the Lanes with their graffiti art and funky cafes which obviously meant a coffee stop!

We also discovered that the Melbourne Museum were holding a special exhibit called “Designing 007 - 50 years of Style” so we decided to check it out. Visiting the TI had paid off as we got a discount voucher for our tickets and the exhibit was totally worth the AUS$25 each we paid. Not only did they have the original Aston Martin DB5, they had so many pieces of memorabilia from the films, as well as some really interesting information about the life of Ian Flemming.

That evening we following the Christmas Lights Trail (another leaflet we had picked up from the TI) which took in some of the cities best displays, including what had been dubbed Christmas Square with a huge Christmas tree and lots of little ones making a forest you could sit in while watching the big screen, giant presents and life-size toy soldiers. We also walked over to the Town Hall which had ben dubbed Santa’s Workshop and where we watched a brilliant animation show which was projected onto the front of the building. We even took a walk over Mistletoe Bridge, obviously stopping for a quickie under the giant, illuminated mistletoe.

The next day was a boring one, so nothing exciting to blog about sadly. Due to the infamous erratic, Melbourne weather - we had gone from shorts and flip-flops (thongs) to jeans and hoodies (still flip-flops mind you!) - we went on a reckie to find our bus station for that night, took a short stroll around the new Dockland’s area (which was being constructed last time we were in town), and nursed a coffee for hours to make the most of their free wifi! See, told you it was boring!

By 18:30, we were at Southern Cross Bus Station, only a 20 minute walk from the hostel waiting for our overnight bus to Sydney where we would start our Christmas celebrations!