Hobart to Melbourne 13 Feb 2017

After 14 days in Tasmania and around 2600km driven it was time to leave for mainland Australia today. We've driven around most of the island and seen so much beautiful scenery and wildlife but realise we could easily have spent so much longer here.

We were up and ready for breakfast at 0800 and enjoyed a quick meal before leaving Orana House before 0830. It's only a 15 minute drive to the airport and after topping up the petrol tank we returned our trusty Mitsubishi ASX to the rental company. 

Check in was easy and we only had just over an hour to wait for our flight to Melbourne. The journey in a Boeing 717-200 only took an hour to cross the Bass Strait and we were soon in cloudy Melbourne. 

Having collected our bags, we headed for the car rental office to collect our pre-booked car. There was quite a queue that stretched right out of the door. Eventually, after about an hour, we finally took delivery of our steed that will take us around 1100km to Adelaide. We realised that there are quite a few toll roads here in Victoria so decided we'd avoid these driving into the centre of Melbourne. It was an interesting experience driving down the length of Sidney Road into town. I'm sure we saw suburbs that tourists rarely visit! 

Our hotel, the YTI Garden Hotel is right in the middle of the city. In comparison to London, it would be like staying just off Oxford Street. Driving in the middle of the city is fun as you share street space with trams! The hotel is small, plain and simple but perfectly clean and adequate for an overnighter in the city.

We explored the immediate area and then jumped on a tram down to Federation Square. The centre of Melbourne has a zone where all the trams are free! How good is that? We wandered around in the park by the Yarra River before catching a second tram up to the Marina. After a wander around there eyeing up the luxury yachts we caught a tram back to the hotel.

We got stuck on the tram for a while as a police car was parked across the line and the occupants involved in arresting someone by the road side! Trouble with a tram is that you can't just drive around problems!

This evening, we investigated the Hardware Lane area, next to the hotel. It's full of restaurants with their owners doing their best to entice you inside with offers of free entrees and drinks! We chose Barbarossa Claypots, a restaurant mainly serving fresh fish. Lynn had mussels but I found a dish that is close to my heart, Kasssler! A taste from the past in Berlin! The beer was darned good too!