Adios Tassie, Hello Melbourne

We have a leisurely breakfast at the Bistro this morning and then take a quick walk around the CBD in Launceston.  We stopped in at the Umbrella Shop – now owned by the National Trust. In business for over a hundred years, it is now a little gift shop and mini museum run by some very nice retired ladies.

Onto the airport for our flight. We are a little concerned since our next host had emailed us that Victoria was expecting monsoon rains and potentially heavy flooding starting on Friday evening. Our flight was delayed about a half hour, but it sounds like the worst of it hit far north of Melbourne. Still, it is raining quite a bit when we get in. Donna, our host meets us to turn over the keys to the apartment and to go over everything.

Our apartment is in the Capitol Building, one of Melbourne’s most important historic buildings, containing both the Capitol Theatre and the Capitol House. The building was designed in 1921 by renowned US architects Walter and Marion Griffin (disciples of Frank Lloyd Wright) and opened in 1924. The Capital Theatre is under renovation currently, but we hope to get a sneak peek. Sadly, part of the theatre was renovated and made into apartments and a mall around 2000. It is now a heritage listed site so remaining original architecture cannot be modified.

We take a quick walkabout to get the lay of the land. We are very close to Chinatown so there are a significant number of Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai restaurants in the area. We keep wandering and eventually find ‘Fathers Office’, a 1920’s prohibition era themed speakeasy and restaurant. The man’s face on the front of the menu looks slightly familiar, I overhear two waitresses talking and find out that it is Andrew Carnegie, how funny. The name of the restaurant is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Mr. Carnegie, a known teetotaler.

Mary

———–

Our final morning in Launceston (and Tasmania) is rainy & cool. Two blocks from our lodging is a cute little bistro that serves amazing breakfasts. But boy, are they slow!

The flight to Melbourne is short, as is our Uber ride to Swanston Street in the CBD. Monsoon rains, but it could have been worse as 100-year rain & flood warnings had been forecast for all of Victoria.

As Mary noted, the apartment is in an architecturally significant building and also has some very nice views of the city.   Among other things, Melbourne is noted for its lanes and arcades.  We did some wandering before dinner, but the heavy rains precluded any serious wandering.     Manaña.

Dick