To continue our adventure down under we decided to take a train from Sydney down to Melbourne...a full-day train trip through the country-what a dream!
It was lovely rolling hills, sheep, cows, and an occasional graffiti splashed station in some remote town...Melbourne was great although we were unprepared for the Seattle-like rain and chilly temps. They have an awesome public transportation system...trams, trains and buses will get you anyplace you need to be on the cheap too-no rental cars for us!
Anyway, there was so much to show from Melbourne that for this post I'll tell you about the restaurants we enjoyed...not in any specific order :)
Here I am at a little cafe on St Kilda's beach-delicious Greek food plus good ol' burgers and fries too-the folks here were really nice too.
Here we are outside the Pizza Piazza which is down on Chapel Street-this funky street a bit rough on the edges with cool clothing and 2nd hand shops, and restaurants! This place has great Italian food and a full gluten-free menu for those who need that. Our waitress was from Eastern Europe and remembered us when we came back the second time-totally wonderful. So, they cover the sidewalks in front of the restaurants-enclose them with clear plastic tarps, then install those gas heaters above so they basically expand the restaurant by 3 tables....there's still a walkway in between these outdoor tables and the restaurant door so we got to eat great food, stay warm and dry and people watch- a true feast for all the senses.
This was our dessert which consisted of vanilla ice cream from heaven, a shot of Frangelico Hazelnut liqueur, and shot of espresso, with a couple of mint leaves as a garnish...oh my word-you would not believe how wonderful this was!
Here is one of our self-portraits from the journey to Melbourne on the train
I couldn't resist the lure of Devonshire Tea in the morning...when the cafe car announced they had extras (you're supposed to order them ahead) I basically ran up there...they had a few left and the servers in the cafe car were sooooo nice. I chatted with them and told them we were on honeymoon.....later in the day there was the following announcement over the loud speaker:
"May I please have your attention for a very special announcement. We would like to say a very special and warm welcome to the honeymooning couple in car "G"" HA! We started giggling and I waved-you could barely see us because the seat backs are pretty high but everyone in the car was looking around to see who it was...so awesome and nice of them to do that for us.
By the way, this Devonshire Tea consisted of two fresh, WARM scones, with butter, strawberry jam, and of course delicious hot tea! It was perfect.
OK, So if you want to travel around the world for some fantastic Thai food then you better buy your tickets to Melbourne....Patee Thai food-also on Chapel Street and "bookings only" in other words, you need reservations. We came a knocking on their door after deciding to walk the 15 blocks from our hotel-getting caught in the nightly downpour and then "borrowing " a ride on the Tram to get the rest of the way there...without a reservation. The warm and kindly hostess explained that if we could eat and vacate by 6:30 pm she would be happy to seat us....it was currently 5:15-no problemo! and many thanks to that lady-wow....it was the best seafood soup I have ever had....so hungry I forgot to snap a picture of it...apologies to you Thai food fans out there...
Another curious fact about the restaurants down there....many had these signs in their windows: bring your own bottle of wine...cool, huh?
This is me in all my satisfied food-coma glory after our second visit. I had the hotel concierge book us a table and she thought we would like to experience the tables where you sit on the floor on cushions....without your shoes on...I loved it! the only thing was we were very close to the next table ....but they were all enjoying their party and only one of them was staring at us. Collin solved that problem.
Here we are outside the Pizza Piazza which is down on Chapel Street-this funky street a bit rough on the edges with cool clothing and 2nd hand shops, and restaurants! This place has great Italian food and a full gluten-free menu for those who need that. Our waitress was from Eastern Europe and remembered us when we came back the second time-totally wonderful. So, they cover the sidewalks in front of the restaurants-enclose them with clear plastic tarps, then install those gas heaters above so they basically expand the restaurant by 3 tables....there's still a walkway in between these outdoor tables and the restaurant door so we got to eat great food, stay warm and dry and people watch- a true feast for all the senses.
This was our dessert which consisted of vanilla ice cream from heaven, a shot of Frangelico Hazelnut liqueur, and shot of espresso, with a couple of mint leaves as a garnish...oh my word-you would not believe how wonderful this was!
Here is one of our self-portraits from the journey to Melbourne on the train
I couldn't resist the lure of Devonshire Tea in the morning...when the cafe car announced they had extras (you're supposed to order them ahead) I basically ran up there...they had a few left and the servers in the cafe car were sooooo nice. I chatted with them and told them we were on honeymoon.....later in the day there was the following announcement over the loud speaker:
"May I please have your attention for a very special announcement. We would like to say a very special and warm welcome to the honeymooning couple in car "G"" HA! We started giggling and I waved-you could barely see us because the seat backs are pretty high but everyone in the car was looking around to see who it was...so awesome and nice of them to do that for us.
By the way, this Devonshire Tea consisted of two fresh, WARM scones, with butter, strawberry jam, and of course delicious hot tea! It was perfect.
OK, So if you want to travel around the world for some fantastic Thai food then you better buy your tickets to Melbourne....Patee Thai food-also on Chapel Street and "bookings only" in other words, you need reservations. We came a knocking on their door after deciding to walk the 15 blocks from our hotel-getting caught in the nightly downpour and then "borrowing " a ride on the Tram to get the rest of the way there...without a reservation. The warm and kindly hostess explained that if we could eat and vacate by 6:30 pm she would be happy to seat us....it was currently 5:15-no problemo! and many thanks to that lady-wow....it was the best seafood soup I have ever had....so hungry I forgot to snap a picture of it...apologies to you Thai food fans out there...
Another curious fact about the restaurants down there....many had these signs in their windows: bring your own bottle of wine...cool, huh?
This is me in all my satisfied food-coma glory after our second visit. I had the hotel concierge book us a table and she thought we would like to experience the tables where you sit on the floor on cushions....without your shoes on...I loved it! the only thing was we were very close to the next table ....but they were all enjoying their party and only one of them was staring at us. Collin solved that problem.
