Travelling during a worldwide crisis

As I sit at my home computer in the midst of a 12 week lockdown, I am totally amazed by the fact that our trip planned last May happened at all.

I spent January and February watching the news from Australia about the fires and then the floods.  The roads we planned to drive along were shut.  Happily, they were all open by Thursday March 5th the day we left Heathrow.  We arrived in Melbourne on Friday night and had arranged to stay in a hotel until Monday, then start the drive to Sydney arriving in Brighton-Le-Sands on March 16th.   We had planned a week's stay with the Hopper Juniors and Minors, returning home on March 23rd.

The folks in Melbourne seemed totally oblivious to a worldwide virus and seemed not to realise the severity of it.  They spent the weekend at the Moomba Festival and F1 was arguing about whether to cancel the Grand Prix the following weekend.  They did eventually.

We spent our 3 days in Melbourne amidst the crowds - no social distancing!

The front door of the Cathedral

Flinders Street Station

A fancy arcade

Another view

I had particularly wanted to see the art work along the lanes in the city centre.

We visited the main market.  The fish stalls were amazing.

More art

A beautiful green lane in the middle of the city.  I could hear the birds singing.

We visited the State library with its amazing layout.

One of Melbourne's oldest trams which was also free to ride. 

A view of the city

On Sunday we walked through the very noisy festival to the tranquility of the Botanic Gardens

We saw this party - we couldn't decide whether it was a birthday party or a bridal shower.

In the evening we ate at a roof top restuarant.  This was the view - not the most appealing!

On Monday - a trip on the river to Williamstown.   The Moomba Festival had closed the upstream part of the river we had wanted to cruise on so we went downstream instead.

We went for a walk around Williamstown

And got the boat back to Melbourne.

We collected the hire car and Roger drove us to Belgrave where we were booked to stay two nights.

More adventures next time.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice