31/52 - Melbourne (in and around)

Week 31 of 52
Mornington Peninsula
near Melbourne, Australia

Two years ago I made a passing comment to my friend Sonya that we should try and go to the Australian Open sometime.  It seems so close (only an 8 hour flight from Singapore) and I hadn't been to Melbourne yet.  Note to self...do not make random comments to Sonya about trips...she is good at making them happen!  We were lucky enough to have the Australian Open fall over the Chinese New Year holiday here in Singapore so we only had to take one day off of work.

We were supposed to arrive Friday morning and see some evening tennis on Friday night...unfortunately, Qantas had other plans for us and we didn't end up arriving until Friday evening.  On Saturday, we spent the afternoon in a part of Melbourne called St. Kilda.  It is right on the water and has great restaurants and some nice shopping.  We enjoyed a delicious breakfast (very hard to find here in Singapore) and a very long walk along the beach.  It was a really grey day so I actually didn't take any pictures...next time.

On Sunday, a group of gals hired a van and driver to take us to the Mornington Peninsula which is known for some great Pinot Noir.  It was a much prettier day to tour some cute little wineries...

We ended up going to about five places along with a local brewery... 

 We also had an amazing lunch at one of the wineries...

On Saturday night, Sonya and I made up for the lack of Friday night tennis by getting center court tickets to see our favorite player, Roger Federer.  He was playing against a young Aussie, Bernard Tomic so it was a packed arena and had a great vibe...

Roger won the match but went on to lose to Rafa Nadal later in the week.  And this was the closest I was able to get to him...

On Monday we were back to Rod Laver arena for an entire day of tennis.  We had amazing seats at one of the service lines and only about 8 rows off the court...

   

We were close enough to hear the players ranting and see everything really well.  The only problem was we were sitting in the direct sun...and the reflection off of the court added about 10 degrees so we were soaked just sitting and watching...I cannot imagine how hot it must have felt to the tennis players.

Tuesday was a pretty quiet day spent just wandering around the city.  We had another delicious breakfast and did a little shopping before I headed off to the airport to come back to Singapore. 

I had previously not been too interested in visiting Melbourne...mainly because of things I had heard from people.  They had always said that Sydney was definitely worth the visit but Melbourne could be skipped.  I'd have to disagree...Sydney is a must see if you are in Australia but Melbourne is a city with an amazing vibe to it.  Great architecture, beautiful views, delicious food, friendly people, and if visiting in January some amazing tennis!