Off to Melbourne today! We ate our hotel provided breakfast and Angie went downstairs ahead of me to arrange transportation to the airport with the concierge in yet another exercise in frustration of that hotel stay. The individual at the concierge desk made a phone call to the one shuttle firm they use to which she was told they were booked. Fair enough, we waited to the last minute. Rather than moving onto a second or third firm she suggested the train.
We shuffled down to the train station across the street where we could find no information about the train schedule other than the train we would need to be on was leaving in three minutes — nothing about when the next train would leave and nobody who would be able to answer that question appeared to be lurking about. Back to the room we went and hailed a taxi. It was probably double the cost and a longer travel time, but it was so much easier.
Domestic flight security was like in the old days — empty your pockets and go through a metal detector. No silly business about taking off shoes, belts, etc. I miss those days.
Called the family to catch up a bit before the flight, and it was good to hear their voices. I think I’m going to call my sister as soon as our birthday ticks around in a couple hours. She’ll love that since she’s is 17 time zones behind me right now. </evil grin>
After arriving in Melbourne and settling into our very posh hotel (with complementary wifi) we began wandering around a rainy city. Lots of unique places to explore more on our hopefully less rainy free day. While we were wrapping up our wandering we hopped onto the free tram (aka light rail/street car) and was planning on riding it in a circuit before the service ended. We didn’t quite make it. The service ended and we were on the far side of its route from the hotel and needed to walk thirty minutes across town to get back to the hotel.
Exploring the hotel, it also has a casino. It’s like there is a wormhole which connects Melbourne with Las Vegas. When you walk through the doors it really feels like you’re in a hotel in Las Vegas. The only thing keying you in that you’re still in Australia is their crazy power outlets with the individual switches.
Pictures are uploading, but very slowly on the complementary wifi. Hang in there!