I didn’t have any golf planned for my last day in Melbourne and planned to get into the city and get a feel for it.  My AirBnB in Brighton East had been superb and superbly convenient for the Sandbelt golf courses but I hadn’t got any nearer to the city than St Kilda.

Peter, who had invited me to his place for dinner in Hobart when my flight was cancelled was in town and had suggested dinner last night but we hadn’t been able to make that work.  Instead we agreed to meet for brunch.  Matt had pointed out signs about a fun run in Melbourne this morning but I hadn’t thought more about that until I encountered the Sunday morning traffic:

We had a very enjoyable brunch and chatted about golf (of course), the city and wine.  Peter suggested I leave my car by the cafe and gave me a lift into the city.

I set out to buy a couple of presents for the boys.  Gregor, as  a Newcastle United fan, wanted the black and white striped shirt of Collingwood, one of the local AFL teams.  It became pretty clear, as I asked where I might get one, that asking for a Collingwood shirt in much of Melbourne is like asking for a Sunderland AFC shirt in the middle of Newcastle.  Not, it is fair to say, everybody’s favourite team.  Anyway, with a little more difficulty than expected I got what I needed and set out to wander around the city.  Melbourne had a really nice feel to it, busy but relaxed.  After an hour or so I found a bar serving very good beer and had a couple while dealing with some correspondence and then continued to walk around.  Perhaps more so than Sydney I really enjoyed the contrast between old and new buildings.

After a few very enjoyable hours I headed back to my car on foot.  At the car I looked for somewhere to eat and found a small and apparently quite new bar/restaurant and gave it a go.  The food was of a very high standard.  Four deliciously plump oysters were followed by beautifully seared scallops on a celeriac puree with apple gel:

And then a chocolate brownie, chocalte ice cream (with PX steeped raisins) and PX sherry creation:

I’m not normally a big dessert person but this was delicious.

A very relaxing but enjoyable day.  The main theme of this trip has been around golf and I fully intend to return to Australia in future with Lorna, to spend some more time seeing the country rather than its golf courses but, nonetheless, I slightly regret not having allowed more time to see Melbourne.

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