Day 20 – Melbourne, In Transit

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After a night of children screaming, there was a certain serenity waking in the morning.  We’d had about a half hour overnight of Jake waking Damian and so on.  The advantage of the Wyndham is that it doesn’t get a lot of natural light, which meant everyone slept in soundly.  I had been up between 6 and 7am turning on the A/C, and by 8:30am decided it was time to start readying our belongings and going through the morning routine.

I was joined at this time by Damian who had woken to the sound of the shower.  Together we sorted the luggage and tidied up the apartment buying Jake and Toni some extra sleep time.  By 9:15am it was time to wake everyone and officially begin the day.  My stomach was in serious pain, although the lethargy which crippled me yesterday was gone.

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Interesting what you come across in Melbourne’s side streets

We decided around 10am to go out and locate a cafe to get a good Melbourne coffee from.  Reception directed us to a place between Little Bourke St and Queen St called “KnockKnock”.  Here we enjoyed piccolo lattes which both Toni and I consumed, we also picked up a pair of corn fritters which came with streaky bacon, mango chutney and lettuce.

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KnockKnock’s coffee and menu

The gale force wind was not too far away, and it was quite cold in contrast to the previous day.  We walked down to the Elizabeth St home of the H & M concept store which was housed inside an old heritage building.   Toni was unable to find exactly what she was looking for, but I did (a toilet) and started the long journey back to being healthy.

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Inside the H & M concept Store

The boys were OK, but acting up a bit –Jake particularly.  It was approaching 11am and the time of the post-wedding brunch.  Based on my health and the boys temperament, we decided that we might need to depart Melbourne and unfortunately miss the brunch.  We made one last stop at Minotaur on Elizabeth (a long standing tradition of mine) and then made our way back to the hotel.

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A quick ritual stop at Minotaur

We gathered luggage with the help of a porter and then checked out as Toni retrieved the car.  I threw a bunch of ice cubes into the esky and we made ready to depart on the long journey back to Canberra.

Aside from a stop for fuel outside the outskirts of Melbourne, it has been a trouble free journey thus far.  We are making good time and are looking to stop in Wodonga for lunch.  As I write this now, we are 145kms from that destination (it is 1:50pm), which will put us at around half way on our return.

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Wodonga stop-over

We hit Wodonga at around 3pm and, with little open, we settled on chips and charcoal chicken from a local food place on the main street. The boys enjoyed some time out of the car, but it was a fairly quick stop – maybe a half hour – and then we were back on the road with me in the driver’s seat.  As we headed north, I was tempted to stop at the Ettamogah Pub and at the Dog and the Tucker Box (outside Gundagai) but didn’t to conserve time.

With good weather and luck we made it to the capital’s outskirts around 7:30pm and were home not long after.  The boys had a very long day, but despite that they were high spirited and even helped with the unpacking (in their own way).

Tomorrow I am back to work, so this formally concludes our 2014 trip! 

Stay tuned for a couple more entries in reflection.

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