Melbourne Australia

We really enjoyed our time in Melbourne Australia. Pronounced by the locals as "Mel-Bun." This is a beautiful, modern and artistic city.  It is on the south of the Australian continent.  We stayed in the city and then took a day trip along the Great Ocean Road.  It is documented in a separate post and was fabulous.

One thing that I would like to note is how LARGE Australia is.  We thought that we would land in Sydney and then maybe drive up to the Great Barrier Reef and then drive down to Melbourne etc.  When we researched the driving times, we changed our minds and decided to fly.  A few hours in the air saved us many, many hours in on the road.   Another thing that we learned was that in Australia it is very expensive to take any luggage with you.  The local airlines' prices may appear reasonable, but they do not have free carry on bags as we are accustomed to in the US.  If you wait until you get to the airport, you can be surprised with a last minute bill of $150 to take your bag with you.  They will allow you to take on a small lightweight item purse but everything must weigh under about 7 kg.  This is not much, just around 15 lbs.  So maybe carry on a small laptop and your lipstick and certainly don't expect to take a suitcase with you without a hefty fee.  You can pay for a checked bag online before your flight and it will be less expensive.  We travel light and payed about $70 each of our small carry-on suitcases. 

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2. We found the temple in Melbourne.  It was closed while we were there but it was a beautiful building located near a church building. It was nice to have a rental car and be able to see the city a bit.  I would love to return to this beautiful city again someday.  It was my favorite city that we visited in Australia.