The time had come for our visit to Melbourne again. We had planned five days with Laurence and Maddy. They were both still on their Christmas break from work so it meant we could spend every day together.

Our trip didn’t start too well with our late night flight delayed for one hour (at least we were on time!). This meant it would be too late for Laurence to pick us up. When we arrived we found the taxi queue to be too long for us to wait, so decided to book the hotel opposite. Any sensible person would walk across the road and ask for a room, but thinking I was being clever I booked online while on the side of the road. 
Booking.Com didn’t allow me to book for the day before, so I went ahead and booked for that day, which meant that we couldn’t check in until 3 pm, which I found out when we went to check in! By now it was 2.30 am and we were desperate for a room. Fortunately I managed to get through to Booking.Com and convey my mistake! Hoping that the hotel would waive the cost as we now had to book direct through them. 
Anyway I didn’t get charged otherwise it would have been a very expensive mistake.  Although I had to explain all this to the staff as they kept saying they couldn’t refund me. Lesson: Do not book online at the side of the road.

For the next five days we ate and drank our way around Melbourne’s fine restaurants. 

We stayed in a one bedroom apartment just across the road from Laurence and Maddy which was ideal.

It was hot and humid one minute and cold and rainy the next. It’s true what they say about Melbourne – Four seasons in one day.

We had a quick trip to St. Kilda for happy hour followed by dinner at Bistro Thierry – no points for guessing it was French.

No trip to Melbourne is complete for Anthony without a shopping day, so it was into town for that.

We had lunch in a very popular Vietnamese restaurant, cocktails on a rooftop bar and dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant.

Thursday it was my day to choose somewhere to go. So we drove to Williamstown around 30 minutes drive from St. Kilda. It was a beautiful sunny day and the beach was packed with umbrellas and cabanas.  We had a seafood lunch overlooking the bay and wander around after.

Williamstown was Melbourne’s first port settlement and named after William 1V in 1837. Of course there was an indigenous settlement long before this. The Yalukit-willam clan of the Kulin nation were the first people to call this town home.

Nowadays it is a popular place for family holidays with gorgeous sandy beaches and many restaurants and cafes. It reminded me of an English seaside town, without the weather to go with it though.

We had a dinner at their place one night with Laurence grilling steaks on his Weber. 

Too soon and it was our last day and it was pouring! Maddy had mentioned she wanted to see the Triennial exhibition at the National Gallery so we caught a tram to the city for a visit. The exhibition is free and hosts many different exhibitions throughout the year.

Taking photos was allowed so I took a few of the ones that I liked or intrigued me the best!

Larger than life sculptures by Thomas J Price

Walking into the room above, I asked myself what constitutes art? I said to Laurence I could do this, looks easy. To which he answered “aah but that’s the trick to make it look easy but in reality it’s very difficult”. I’m still not sure I would put this on my wall though.

Paintings by Farrokh Mahdavi an Iranian artist.  In Untitled, pink is the universal colour of our flesh; it transcends politics, race, nationality, territoriality and gender.  Source – NGV

Well I could definitely do this. My thoughts: ”The Emperor’s New Clothes”. I have cropped this as much as I could but it was in a room with nothing else. 

In 1999, Cattelan duct taped his art dealer, Massimo De Carlo, to a wall for the opening of his exhibition  A Perfect Day. 

I loved the ones above as I found them profound and moving.

Displaced along with members of his immediate family during the Kosovo War (1998–99), Petrit Halilaj’s Very volcanic over this green feather explores his experience as a thirteen-year-old refugee living for more than two years in Kukës II camp in Albania. Art materials were distributed to children at the camp by visiting Italian psychologist Giacomo Poli. Poli encouraged the children to externalise and process their experiences through drawing. Spotting his talent, Poli would much later arrange for Halilaj to attend art school in Italy. Source – NGV

I enjoy looking at old paintings of Royalty and Noblemen and Women and one floor was showing these, although not part of the Triennel exhibition.

Anthony’s family has a family tree dating back to Louis XIV by one of his mistresses and above is Louis XIII. Is there a likeness? He would have to shave his beard to be sure! On that note I will close this lengthy post.

Thanks for joining me on our recent trip to Melbourne!