Our arrival in Melbourne was uneventful. We docked in the same place that Solstice had docked last year. Because we had used the public transit system last year we decided to do the HoHo bus. It was a long walk to the pick up point, but the ride to city center was nice and informative. We opted to get off there and use the Internet in Federation Square. Then we would resume our ride.
This went well, and I was able to update the blog. When we returned to the HoHo stop we were told that the bus was full. We would have to wait an hour. We started to leave and make new plans, when a group of people got off. We hurried aboard. This HoHo was very hohum. The first segment of two hours around the central business district was long because traffic was terrible. The sights were unimpressive and the narration was poor and uninformative.
To get back to the ship we had to change to a second HoHo route at Federation Square. This proved to be delightful as it took us out to the shore at St. Kilda, a suburb near the pier. The houses along the shore were beautiful. The beaches were very inviting, and the yacht club was impressive. After a lovely drive we were taken back to the port. The bus passed the pick up point and headed down to the port gate. Hooray we all thought. They will drop us here, shortening a long walk. Not to be. This was just to use the roundabout to head us back to the correct side of the street at the original pick up point. Nuts!
We would have done much better to buy a transit day pass and use public. Transport as we had last year. This HoHo gets a grade of F.
Shame on us because hade we done better research, we would have learned that the walk to St. Kilda from the ship was a little over 2 miles. That would have been a piece of cake. We would have had time to sip a coffee at one of the beautiful seaside cafes. Perhaps a walk in the surf would have been in order. It would also have offered up more opportunities to talk with the locals.
Before going to the ship we decided to walk the neighborhood and try to find a place for Alice to get her hair cut. We had been very successful with this in South America. As we walked, we were passed by a young woman who asked if we were from the ship. She wanted to know where we were from, and we wanted to know where she lived as she had a strange accent. She was from Fiji, but has lived in Melbourne for 30 years. 15 years ago we had visited Fiji, so the conversation continued as we walked. She was on her way to the gym, but when we asked her about a hair salon, she insisted on taking us to where there were several. She pointed them out and said a haircut should be about $45 Australian. Roughly $32 US. The first shop we tried was $90. The next was $35, but was busy. We walked back home through an older, but very nice neighborhood.
Not a perfect day, but good nonetheless.
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