We had a wonderful day today in Melbourne, Australia. It truly reminds us of the USA back in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Last evening we continued to have very rough seas. It was extremely windy. At times it felt as if we were in a large aircraft and experiencing turbulence. The ship did wonderful in spit of all of this. Yesterday, when we went to the Captain’s Farewell Reception we were on Deck 12 in a room called the Palm Court and there were a times that because of the high winds that water actually splashed onto the outside windows of this room. We were fine with the seas and did not feel seasick at all. We just needed to walk carefully during the evening hours and we could hear the ship vibrate from time to time and of course feel the movement of the ship throughout most of the night. Anne Marie wore earplugs so she heard far less of the noise than Keith did.
After we had dinner at the Specialty Restaurant last evening we went by the second Captain’s Farewell Reception of the evening, which is, held for those passengers who are in the second dinner seating. We have been doing this of late just to say hello to some passengers who we don’t see as often since we eat dinner at the main seating. We just stayed for a little while after walking around the reception a couple of times. We ran into several people who we know. We also spoke with the Captain a couple of times last evening. He is a wonderful Captain and we appreciate all he does for the safety of the ship and for all passengers and crew.
To give you more perspective as to yesterdays weather conditions, during the Captain’s morning talk he mentioned that last evening we had Force 10, which equals a storm. At one point the winds as high as 65 Knots at one point and then leveled off to between 55 to 60 Knots overnight. The Captain’s thought of the day is “The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook.” We continue to look forward to these thoughts of the day and today’s thought reminds us of the importance of focusing on all that is good each day rather than dwelling on other items. There is so much to be gained from a positive outlook and we remind ourselves of how truly fortunate we are In our case, we know how lucky and fortunate we are to be cruising with Crystal and to be taking a World Cruise and we look forward to making new memories each and every day that will last a lifetime. We also realize that life is relatively short particularly when one considers the age of the earth so we want to focus on what is good each and everyday. Again, we have so much to be thankful for.
Today, we arrived in Melbourne, Australia. Melbourne is the capital of Victoria. It is the second largest city in Australia, with a population of over 3 million people. This city has a very diverse population with almost a third of its residents born overseas. An example of its diversity is the fact that more people who are Greek descendants live in Melbourne than in any other worldwide city except for those who live in Athens. Many immigrants settled in Melbourne from a variety of places such as China, Vietnam, Italy and Lebanon.
Its architecture has a European flair. This city is also well known for its large number of restaurants, stores, entertainment, and nightclubs. Throughout the year it hosts major events from concerts, to plays, to sporting events, including the Formula One Grand Prix.
The locals take great pride in their city just as those who live in other cities around the world do.
As we mentioned, last evening the seas were quite choppy as it was very windy. While the seas were quite choppy they did not bother us. We just needed to walk carefully. The pilot met the ship a little after 4:00 AM this morning and we reached Melbourne at approximately 8:00 AM.
We awoke early this morning as we do each day and started our day off with a nice workout in the Fitness Center. Keith was the first one in the Fitness Center and Anne Marie arrived a short time later. A few minutes after Anne Marie began her workout John also arrived to the center. For most of our workout it was just the three of us in the center and then when John left it was just the two of us. It was dark outside for most of our workout but we could see another cruise ship not too far away, which was also sailing into the harbor.
After our workout, we enjoyed a nice breakfast in the Lido Café. A few of the regulars who normally sit at a table right adjacent to the table we sit at were also in the Café including John and his lovely wife Linda and about six or so other passengers.
Keep in mind that today is Sunday in Australia as we are about eighteen hours or so ahead of the East Coast of the USA. The pilot boarded our ship at around 4:00 AM this morning We arrived at the pier a little before 8:00 AM this morning. We docked at the Outer East Station Pier at Beach Street in Melbourne. The pier is located a few miles from the downtown area. Crystal Cruises provided a complimentary shuttle that ran every thirty minutes between the pier and the Mercure Grand Hotel, located downtown. The drive was about twenty minutes in each direction.
We will be in Melbourne today and tomorrow as we have an overnight in this nice city. We have a shore excursion planned for tomorrow, which is a complimentary excursion provided to all guests. This is being offered two times; one tomorrow morning and the other tomorrow afternoon. We are booked on the morning excursions.
When we disembarked the ship to wait for the complimentary bus it was very (and we do mean very windy). In some ways we felt as if we were in the Windy City of Chicago, Illinois in March. We had to wait longer than expected for the first shuttle bus as there was a traffic jam getting into the pier but once we boarded the bus we were downtown in about twenty minutes. We walked to a variety of places. Our first stop was Queen Victoria Market which first opened in the 1870’s and sells a variety of clothing and other merchandise and has an extensive area selling fresh lamb, beef, seafood, poultry and fruits and vegetables. We saw just about every type of item related to lamb that you can think of. We then walked to some other areas including to the Melbourne Museum and to Chinatown. Chinatown was quite extensive. We also walked along the river a market area selling slow-food (just the opposite of fast-food) and we also went to a local arts and crafts fair held each Sunday. As we walked the streets of the downtown area we could see so much diversity in terms of restaurants and in terms of people all around us. Everyone we spoke with was very friendly and at the market they were not pushy at all. The cost of goods seemed on a little more reasonable when compared to what we might expect to pay in the United States.
We walked about three and one half miles and then decided to take the shuttle back to the ship for lunch. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch in the main dining room and sat adjacent to a family who is on this segment of the cruise who we know from Cruise Critic. We spoke with them during lunch.
After we freshened up we decided to take a nice walk. About fifteen minutes into our walk we ran into a familiar person who works at the reception desk of the Serenity who we also know from last years World Cruise. His name is Franz and he is always so very friendly to us. He had told us this morning that he was going to walk from the ship to and from the town and sure enough that is what he did. So, he gave us directions and with our trusty map we decided to walk as far as we thought we had time for and sure enough we ended up walking all the way to and from the downtown area. We walked a little over seven miles and during our walk we passed many restaurants, where it was clear that the locals dine. We also passed numerous bakeries with perfectly looking cakes and pastries and we also passed many other places such as a wonderful looking fruit and vegetable market. We also saw a very nice supermarket and went in there to buy one item. We entered the downtown area from the other direction that we saw this morning so we saw another area of the downtown. We could see the Melbourne Aquarium from where we walked and walked by the other side of the river where was saw some local entertainment including various clowns, face-painting for children, old time cars from the 1940s and the 1950s and a band comprised of teenage boys who played wonderful music. It was quite a festive atmosphere and we were happy to feel like part of the festivities. We felt very safe for the entire walk and again this city had the feel of the 1950s and early 1960s in the USA.
We certainly got our exercise for the day. Between our workout and our two extended walks, Anne Marie walked about fifteen miles today and Keith ended up doing over twenty miles of walking and elliptical exercise.
While the day started off windy the rest of the day was very nice. We would say it was in the 60s and at times there was some wind which was quite nice while a other points there was very little wind.
We enjoyed two different types of fish for dinner this evening in the Main Dining Room. One was a fresh fish called Trevally. Coincidentally, we had seen Trevally fish at the seafood market earlier today. We also enjoyed a Black Bass fish which the headwaiter had ordered for us as he knew we had really liked it the other evening.
Oh and one more piece of news. Yesterday, we were asked by a couple that we know from last year if we wanted to play on their team trivia team during the next segment of the cruise. We saw they in town today and told them that we would join their team for the next segment of the cruise. The next segment of the World Cruise has a lot of sea days(eleven sea days) as we cruise from Sydney, Australia to Hong Kong so that’s a lot of trivia. Last year we played team trivia throughout the World Cruise but this year we were taking some time off from it but we are ready to play it again. It will be fun. ☺
Keith & Anne Marie
