A Short Stroll in Melbourne

We slept well, arose early, and enjoyed breakfast at the Hilton Melbourne Little Queen Street.

Since our flight to Hobart doesn’t depart until 4:50PM, we stored our bags and wandered around for a few blocks to take in the sights.

The Hilton itself is housed in the historic Equity Trustees building (anything built as long ago as 1930 in Oz is “historic”).

Quite a bit to enjoy in Australia’s “second city.” Melbourne and Sydney are at least as distinct as, say, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Melbourne certainly has its charms.

“Rugged up” (rugged pronounced in one syllable like the past tense of rug) on this window display means warmly dressed.

There are cute little alleys and arcades within a couple of blocks of the Hilton.

This sign is advising a Melbourne “hook turn” ahead. To make a turn across traffic (our left turn is an Australian right turn), rather than block the outside lane of traffic, you pull to the side near the intersection and turn when it’s clear. It works very well when people drive sensibly, as they generally do in Australia.

More on hook turns here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_turn

Just as we boarded the free tram back the two stops to Southern Cross Station to catch the SkyBus back to MEL, it started to rain. It seems our timing was fortuitous today.

We’re flying MEL-HBA on Virgin Australia with United points. Our UA Gold status gives us access to the VA Lounge, a cavernous but pleasant enough place to while away a couple of hours before flying to Hobart Tasmania.