I’m blogging this from Melbourne as we are staying with our friends the Boards (see the Ben-n-Em link on the blogroll).
Friday.
We got up early and headed over to Henry Deane Plaza to have breakfast at Henry Henry, a nightspot and cafe/bar there.
Mini-Elbeno managed to fall over and although it didn’t seem like a bad fall, he cut his lip and bled a bit. Consequently we didn’t really eat much breakfast – and they missed out half our order through a misunderstanding, so we put that episode behind us and headed over to Darling Harbour.
We got our own guided tour of the Maritime Museum from Bob & Dolores, which was really interesting. A maritime museum sounds a bit boring, but it was actually interesting and covered all kinds of Australian history, right up to the present day and including swimming and surfing culture. Outside the museum were a few ships, including the HMS Endeavour, reconstructed from the original plans in Greenwich.
We went to Sydney Aquarium in the afternoon and mini-Elbeno loved all the fish, turtles, etc. This was also the first time I’d seen a real life platypus, and the shark oceanarium was great. We stayed in there for a while watching the rays and sharks swim all around and above us.
Returning to the hotel area of town, we decided to eat at an Italian place up the road called Fratelli Paradiso. Mini-Elbeno wasn’t being particularly patient though and we tried to eat quickly. Then we had a quick run back through the rain and our usual early(ish) night.