The only thing on list of stuff to do today was to visit the Queen Victoria Markets so soon after breakfast and packing our bags my sister and myself started the walk through the Melbourne rain to have a look. Honestly there were a few interesting things at the markets but the majority of the things been sold were of no interest to me.

So after the markets I went again to the Sensory Lab Cafe and had a cappuccino.

Upon learning that the Sensory Lab had a second store close by that offered a more diverse range of coffee within 15 minutes I was enjoying my first siphon coffee (which is pretty similar to pour over coffee for the record).

My sister had their cold drip which a also had a small taste of.

After my morning coffee adventure I then had lunch out with my family at Supdbar where I had their home style bolognese spud (potato topped with bolognese sauce, sour cream, carrot, peas and corn).

Then another coffee with my dad at you guessed it, the Sensory Lab. Filter this time for me.

Unfortunately that concluded the interesting part of my day with the remained spent traveling the the airport and going home.

Overall I really enjoyed the trip and got to see a great variety of what Victoria has to offer.

Today was once again appropriately started with coffee, this time a cold pour over filter from Auction Rooms cafe.

Next up my sister and I went up the top of Skydeck to get a better view of Melbourne. I can now say that I never truly appreciated how close it was to the sea.

After lunch it was time to head off the the Art Gallery to see some modern and classical art.

Passing a protest heading back into the city we ventured to a pen shop, tea shop (again) and Koko Black which I can now confirm is a more sophisticated version of Max Brenna (I tried the chocolate affogato).

Knowing that there was a nighttime noodle market on next to Federation square we had a little look around after finally getting dinner at a street vender closer to the city because according to my sister that one of the thing to do in Melbourne.

To finish the day off we went to see the Myer Christmas animatronics display which was pretty much the story of Goldilocks and the three bears replacing Goldilocks with Santa.

It was nice to see though that they had also set up a nativity scene adjacent to the animatronics display celebrating the birth of Jesus.

Just a quick note this is the second time I have written this post so please excuse the somewhat disjointed nature of it. I’m currently too tired to fix it.

Melbourne is known for a few things three of which are food, coffee and city sites of which today I all partook in. After today I’d also add another to that list, walking of which I’ve done about 20km just today.

After 15mins if been in Melbourne I was enjoying my first coffee at Sensory Lab located in the David Jones shopping complex.

I ordered their filter coffee which was quite excellent and surprisingly priced at $3.50 (In Brisbane or the Gold Coast filter coffee would typically cost upwards of $7!)

Coffee number to was at the Proud Mary Cafe over in Collingwood  (such a long walk!). I ordered their cold drip coffee which was unlike any other coffee I’ve tried before been naturally sweet with fruit and floral notes. I may have also bought a second for you know “on the road”.

From the Proud Mary I met up with my family over in the botanical gardens and had a nice walk.

And then there was rest, until dinner…

Dinner was at Big Boy BBQ, a recommendation of a friend and boy was it good.

I shared a half rack of pork ribs, some chicken wings, potato salad and garden salad with my sister. We had planned to go to Koko Black for dessert but ended up finding the T2 tea shop and purchasing various sorts of tea instead.

I have typically had a rather superficial knowledge of the Eureka Stockade and gold rush in Australia and after today I can say that my knowledge in that regard has significantly improved.

Staying at Ballarat where the gold rush all started we decided to go to Sovereign Hill with is kinda a mixture between a theme park, historical site and museum. The whole park is essentially a reconstruction of a typical city of the gold rush period complete with hired actors/staff dressed up in period clothing and “acting the part”.

Starting at main street they had many stores that you’d expect to see during the period including a general store, metal smith, hotel, bank and the like. Breaking away from the main street you’d find an artificial river where you can try your hand at panning for gold, working machinery used for the processing quatz containing gold, mine shafts that you can venture down and a gold refinery where you can watch $145,000 worth of gold been melted and set into an ingot. It was a really long day but in my opinion really worth it.

I also got to go to the gold museum where there were many examples of gold veins…

…and cool somewhat unrelated stuff like this denarius which make me think of Jesus’ parable of the men in the vineyard in Mathew 20.

Today was yet again another quiet day as we made the trip from the Grampians to Ballarat. Along the way we saw a few wind farms which I found quite interesting having previously modeled them as part of a power system in my undergraduate degree.

We also happens to go to one of the last wool mills still operating in Australia. It was quite interesting to see the process of how yarn is manufactured on a commercial level and I took the opportunity to purchase a ridiculously soft jumper made from merino wool and cashmere while we were there.

The last part if the day was spent exploring around Ballarat where we got to see their large lake full of various forms of wildlife and the botanical gardens.

I realize now that we have left the Great Ocean Road and traveled inland to see the Grampians that the  name given to this series of posts is becoming increasingly inaccurate. But moving on, today was somewhat of a more quiet day of just taking in the scenery with very little walking about. In many regards that suited me since today I have been felling a little under the weather.

The Grampians really stand out from everything else around them since the surrounding area is very very flat and once you travel up the top of them you are give a very stunning view.

It’s a shame we are only staying one night here but there are still a lot of things on our list to do in Victoria. I’ll sign off for today with a picture straight outside our accommodation.

Without a doubt the highlight of today was getting to visit the famous Twelve Apostles.

In person the apostles are really beautiful and I love the contrast between the cream/orange coloured rocks and the blue ocean. I was fortunate to have enough time to create two short timelapse sequences at different vantage points which I shall have to look forward to compiling once I get back home.

Beside the apostles there were numerous other photo opportunities through the day with each been uniquely beautiful. Here are a few I was able to capture on my phone.

As of tonight we technically have finished driving the length of the great ocean road and tomorrow will head towards the Grampians.