BurbleChaz

We arrived in Melbourne at about 0500 local time this morning after over 20 hours travelling. It was dark and cold. We didn't feel too bad, though. The Qantas crews had taken excellent care of us on both legs (London-Singapore, and Singapore-Melbourne). Business class is just so much more pleasant than economy. The seats were totally adjustable, from upright to completely flat and almost horizontal. We both managed to get a lot of good quality sleep. The food was, well, very good airline food. Eating fish on a plane is probably a tiny bit too optimistic. The beef was a little on the rare side. It's not fair to compare it to a restaurant, though. It was more than adequate, and the presentation was good. The wine was excellent, particularly the Shiraz-Grenache-Viognier that I drank (a lot) of.

We heard about the chaos at Heathrow when we in Singapore. It looks like we missed that by less than six hours. I hate to think how we'd have felt on a twenty-hour flight with no carry-on at all. The customs and immigration teams were efficient and professional at Melbourne. We got through with no problems much faster than we had expected, and were met by a driver, who took us to our apartment.

The apartment is on the fourth floor. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a living area. It's spacious, and has everything we could need.

We decided not to grab any sleep early in the morning, and instead went out and grabbed a coffee and a bite to eat. Once we'd done that, the day was warming up a little, so we went for a walk down to the river. We had a stroll through a park, then along the riverbank for a bit. After a bit, we went and found the Victoria Information Center, and bought another map. The one we had been using in the Lonely Planed guide is excellent, but the book is a bit to awkward to carry just for the map.

Next, we bought a one-day metcard from a street kiosk, and hopped on a tram to St. Kilda. After a twenty-minute ride, we go off and went for a walk along the beach and out on the pier. The views back towards the city are lovely. We hiked around St. Kilda for a bit, trying to get a feel for the place. It's still high on our list of places to live.

After getting a tram back, we went to the apartment for a bit of a snooze. Waking up after two hours was difficult to the point of pain. Eventually, we attained verticality again, and went out for a bit more of a look around and some food at a newly opened Wagamama. This was followed by the main evening snooze.

I think we're going to like it here.