{"id":14494,"date":"2018-11-03T17:05:07","date_gmt":"2018-11-03T21:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=14494"},"modified":"2018-11-07T17:07:33","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T22:07:33","slug":"melbourne-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=14494","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne, Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday – November 3, 2018<\/p>\n

The Majestic Princess crossed the Bass Straight last night between the island of Tasmania and mainland Australia. \u00a0It was the roughest seas we\u2019ve had yet on this entire voyage. \u00a0The movement and creaking of our cabin kept waking me up. \u00a0The ship rolled from side to side in the wind and shuddered as the waves hit the sides. \u00a0The captain later said we had over six meter swells with sustained 60 knots of wind. \u00a0That\u2019s 20 foot waves!<\/p>\n

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As soon as the ship passed through the narrow 110 meter wide inlet into Port Philip Bay, everything became calm. \u00a0It took Majestic three hours from the inlet to travel to the Port of Melbourne. \u00a0I think that\u2019s when I finally fell asleep.<\/p>\n

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It was a 15 minute tram ride from the port to the center of the city. \u00a0We learned that Melbourne has more trams than any other city in the world. The CBD (Central Business District) is served by a \u201cFree Tram\u201d district including the City Circle Tram which takes passengers all around Melbourne.<\/p>\n

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We rode a modern tram to the Southern Cross Station on Collins Street and then walked to Queen Victoria Market. \u00a0Melbourne is full of very new modern skyscrapers, with lots of construction, and wide streets with an elaborate tram system running everywhere.<\/p>\n

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I can\u2019t adequately describe the Queen Victoria Market, except to say it was HUGE with stalls selling everything imaginable in countless \u201cSheds.\u201d \u00a0Clothing, household goods, and non-food stalls were followed by buildings full of \u00a0fresh fruits, vegetables. \u00a0 The line of large sheds were identified by letters from \u201cA\u201d through \u201cL.\u201d \u00a0Additional old warehouse buildings surrounded the sheds providing more retail space.<\/p>\n

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Behind the \u2018alphabet’ sheds were large enclosed buildings which housed other food items: cheeses, prepared meats, pies, breads, baked meat pies, pastries, etc. \u00a0Another large building housed stalls which sold fresh meat and fish.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve visited many markets in a wide variety of countries and I really think this is the biggest market I\u2019ve ever seen, selling such a wide assortment of food and goods. \u00a0There is nothing like this market anywhere. Queen Victoria Market was sooo much fun! \u00a0We bought meat pies and a soft drink called \u201cPub Squash” and ate lunch outside on tables set between the warehouse buildings.<\/p>\n

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Time at the market flew by and we wanted to return to downtown Melbourne so we found the City Circle Tram and rode about half way around town. \u00a0Old historic trams were preserved and used for this line.<\/p>\n

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Newer, larger and more modern trams are used in other parts of the city and go out to the suburbs. \u00a0Melbourne was a great surprise! \u00a0It seems like a vibrant fun city!<\/p>\n

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There were many sight to see and places to visit but unfortunately we had to return to the ship by 4:00 o\u2019clock. \u00a0Too bad Melbourne isn\u2019t closer to home! \u00a0I would like to return and spend more time exploring the city. \u00a0I bought a Bubble Tea to drink on the tram back to the Port of Melbourne and we returned to the ship in plenty of time for our \u201cSail Away.\u201d \u00a0Tomorrow is our last Day at Sea and our last day aboard the magnificent Majestic Princess before we reach Sydney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday – November 3, 2018 The Majestic Princess crossed the Bass Straight last night between the island of Tasmania and mainland Australia. \u00a0It was the roughest seas we\u2019ve had yet on this entire voyage. \u00a0The movement and creaking of our cabin kept waking me up. \u00a0The ship rolled from side to side in the wind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australia","category-cruising"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14494"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14497,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14494\/revisions\/14497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}