Day 4
Travel Location: Melbourne,Australia
The rain didn’t stop during the night and the roof window of our campervan was leaking. A good start with the new car! However, the car was driving well and without problems. We may never know what all was wrong with the last one.
Victoria weather was cloudy and every now and then it poured. We drove towards Melbourne on the highway and except for a car that has a tree branch stuck below there was not much worth mentioning. Today, we planned to visit Yarra Valley, one of the many wine regions in Victory and, at least for us, one of the better known. We arrived shortly after 1 pm in the valley and our first vineyard. Tallawara had a nice setting overlooking the vineyard with a restaurant and a tasting area. The wines were nice too, but with the limited space in our van we decided against buying it. The next winery was Coldstream Hills which was founded by James Halliday, the producer of the Wine compaion. We coudn’t resist the wine there and bought a nice bottle of viognier 2007.
The last stop was Chandon, famous for its bubblies and which is what we normally order in a restaurant. The setting was a massive building with a view over the vineyard through the floor to ceiling windows. The car park was full and many tour buses were parked. The park in front of the building was crowded with tourists taking pictures. We felt more like at a monument than a vineyard. Unfortunately for us, they only had two bubblies for tasting so we decided to purchase a range tasting ticket. However, as we wanted to taste a particular one, we ended up buying just a glass each. We got a complementary cheese, bred and dip plate which was tasty but small.
After having had enough wines, we drove to Melbourne and found a camping ground near the race course. With $45 a night most probably the most expensive on our tour. The facilities are good and the CBD can be reached with the 220 bus directly. Convenience has a price.
We spent the evening in the Melbourne CBD for a nice dinner in the Hardware St. We had nice italien food with a jazz band playing. We met up with friends and went on to the Kitten Club which is a quite nice little bar in Little Collins street.
