JONATHAN was an absolute Starbar!! When we arrived he had collected maps, info, prices, phone cards, rail passes and anything else we could possibly need for our 2 weeks in Melbourne. He showed us around the city on the fastest walking tour I’ve ever been on!! He forgets that his legs are nearly twice as long as mine!! We FLEW past the MCG, Cooks Cottage, the river that he rows on, the Melbourne Tennis grounds were the Australian Open is played, the graffitied alleys and artwork on the streets and finally ended up in a very cool Japanese Ice Cream place!! Very random flavours - we tried green tea, sticky rice, lychee, coconut…….but very tasty!! He drove us around in Kaz’s Rav4 (thanks Kaz!!) to the famous Yarra Valley vineyards the best of which was the Tokar Estate where we had fantastic wine and lunch, the wildlife sanctuary to see Roos and Koalas and the Melbourne Comedy festival. The first night was so awful it was funny and we got a refund!! I felt so sorry for the guy that I just wanted the stage to open up and swallow him!! But the second night was hilarious!! The Best of Edinburgh Fest - 3 comedy geniuses - a great night!! All in all Jon was a LEGEND and we owe him a massive thanks for all his tour guiding wonderfulness!!
A few pics of the whiz bang tour!!!
LIZ was another Starbar!! It had been nearly 4 years since she’d left me in the Hague and in the mid field for Holland Ladies :o( and I know she thought I would never make it over to Oz to see her!! Im sooooooooooooo glad we did!! If we had done nothing interesting when we were in Melbourne it would have been fine just to spend the time with her. It was like we were back to the good old days and time had not passed!! She let us stay in her beautiful apartment and even gave us her bed!! She cooked amazing meals for us - a good old Aussy BBQ on the first night, Apple crumble in the mountains and I could die for her Chicken Laksa!! Herself, Kaz and Leeanne entertained us with their RSVPing exploits!!! And herself and Kaz organised the perfect easter weekend up in Mount Beauty. Im so glad that when we left we knew we were going to catch up again in August otherwise I think it would have been much harder to leave!! I hope all your cycling in Spain goes well and cant wait to see you at the wedding wohoooo!!! :o)
For only having spent two weeks in Melbourne we really crammed in a lot!! But the highlight was definitely the loooooonnngggg Easter Weekend in Mount Beauty. Organised by Liz and Kaz - it was a weekend of good food (the Roo steaks and apple crumble made with ‘borrowed‘ apples from the neighbours were the best!!), copious amounts of wine and beer, great craic, beautiful scenery, mountain biking and hiking, highly competitive games of pictionary and off course no easter weekend would be complete without CHOCOLATE and plenty of it!!!! We played two-up with the locals, a coin flipping gambling game played on ANZAC day, Australias day of rememberence for members of the armed forces past and present. We visited the Brown Brothers Winery for more free wine tasting, a local cheese factory which had a gorgeous paprika goats cheese and next door there was a mustard factory!! To be honest as soon as we arrived at the beautiful log cabin we knew it was going to be a good weekend!! The pictures speak for themselves but honestly it couldn’t have been more perfect!!
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