Melbourne

When you are invited to meet royalty, you do not decline.  Well - yes, it was dead royalty, but the invitation was still there to be accepted. 

Melbourne Museum

Early in 2011 my brother bought tickets for himself, us, our daughter and son-in-law to see the Tutankhamun exhibition.  So this month we flew into Melbourne from Sydney and Brisbane for a few days to catch up with each other and to take in the exhibition - not to mention some serious eating and window shopping.

Melbourne skyline from our hotel room

We Fudges stayed in a serviced apartment across the road from the Victoria Markets, a must-see part of the Melbourne culture.

From there it was a brisk walk (a necessity in the Melbourne winter to keep from freezing to the pavement) into the city for a warm breakfast at the Hopetoun Tea Rooms.

Thus fuelled for the morning, we set out for the Melbourne Museum to rendez vous with the family.

Melbourne Museum

I had visited the Cairo Museum way back in the Sixties - our daughter had been inside Tutankhamun's tomb a few years back, and the three male members of the family are all history buffs, so we were quite keen to become reacquainted with this wonderful piece of history.  It did not disappoint and despite the hammy narration by Omar Sharif whispering into our head sets, it was a spectacular experience.  Sadly, no photos were allowed, so I do hope you will be able to get along to see it yourself.

My brother's school rugby team was also in Melbourne, so while he spent the afternoon watching them play, the rest of us visited the National Gallery of Victoria to see the Vienna exhibition.

National Gallery of Victoria

Again, no phoography allowed, but it's a wonderful exhibition and well worth the visit.

What I adore about Melbourne is the little lanes packed with coffee shops, restaurants and boutique shops.

This tiny coffee shop was warm and welcoming and the coffee was beautiful.

Laneway soup ... mmmm ...

There's so much to see in Melbourne and we packed a lot into the time we had.

Refurbished General Post Office

General Post Office upper level shops

Melbourne fashion

That evening our daughter and son-in-law treated us all to the most magnificent banquet at Ginger Boy.

The Son-in-Law Eggs are a MUST.

Looking back, we appear to have spent a great deal of our waking hours eating.  But with so many temptations, who could blame us?

Coffee and cake at Brunetti at Carlton has become a tradition for us.  Need you ask why?

Melbourne right now is a brilliant city to visit.  The cold weather encourages lots of walking, shopping, gallery visits and, of course, lots of eating.  Nice.