Our Rental Car

How wonderful it was to have this rental car for a period of twelve days! What did we do with it? On the pick-up day, Tuesday 9th April, we travelled in it around locally. The following day we started our big trip through the outback of New South Wales and from there into the state of Victoria, where we first stayed at Mildura and then we travelled on to Melbourne.

On Wednesday, 10th April, we started before sunrise. We went up Macquarie Pass. Macquarie Pass is an 8 kilometre long section of the Illawarra Highway passing through Macquarie Pass National Park. It was opened in 1898. It is a very winding steep road through this beautiful National Park. Peter knows this section well for he travelled up and down this path every day when he worked at Robertson Station which is at the top of the escarpment. We went through Robertson on the way to Moss Vale. Moss Vale was our first stop. We had a lovely breakfast up there on that Wednesday morning.

There’s one picture of Moss Vale Station. The train from Sydney stops at Moss Vale on its way to Melbourne! We took a few pictures in the vicinity of the station. First of all we went to have some breakfast not far from the station where we stopped.

Inside the cafe where we had breakfast were some remarkable posters. The service was very friendly. The owner agreed to have his picture taken by me.

A beautiful restaurant near Moss Vale Station

Travelling around in the Illawarra

Today is already the first of May. There are still some more pictures of last month I wish to publish. Right now I am going to publish some photos we took on Tuesday, the 9th of April, the day when we picked up our rental car in Wollongong. At Austinmer Beach we stopped for a cup of coffee.

This is the place where we had coffee right opposite the beach.

There's a Swimming Pool at Austinmer Beach. — There’s a Swimming Pool at Austinmer Beach.

And here I am being photographed with a happy young woman from China!

This young woman had come with a whole lot of other people from a tourist bus that stopped near the beach just for a few minutes. This friendly young woman asked Peter to take some pictures of her. And she also wanted to be photographed together with me!

After this interlude we drove further up north. There is this little beach that we can always see from the train on the way to Sydney. We stopped briefly near that little beach and then we went up to Bald Hill where we could see this little beach from the top and we could also see the Sea Cliff Bridge.

This is near that little beach where we had just stopped the car.

From Bald Hill we had a great look at the little beach.

The Sea Cliff Bridge as seen from Bald Hill

On that Tuesday we also went from Bald Hill up the escarpment to Bulli Lookout where we had something to eat at the Cliffhanger Cafe.
All these places are in our area. We were back home in the afternoon and started getting ready for our big trip away from home. We were away from home for ten nights (eleven days). Peter saw to it that we could have a rest after every two hours of driving. This rental car was pretty new and more powerful than our small thirteen year old car that Peter usually drives. I was glad that we hired this rental car for our big trip. It made for much better longer distance driving. I am afraid we took an awful lot of pictures during our trip. So there are still some more to come in my next posts!

On the Calder Highway to Melbourne

As I said in the previous post we left Mildura before sunrise and were soon on the Calder Highway heading towards Melbourne. This was on Saturday, 13th April 2013.

As the sun showed itself above the horizon we had already left Mildura well behind. Melbourne here we come!

After a couple of hours this sign caught our attention.

Looking forward to getting coffee and a piece of the famous vanilla slice.

This break after two hours driving is quite welcome!

We are about to go inside for our coffee and vanilla slice when we notice . . .

. . . this sign next door. Anyone for a meat pie? No, thanks, not this morning. We stick with coffee and cake for now.

You can really get a good feed at malleedeli.

We are quite happy with our decision. The vanilla slice turns out to be just heavenly! No wonder it has become famous.

Apparently truckies can get a good feed here and they can rest in the Truckies Lounge.

After this nice coffee break we keep going. Melbourne is getting closer. 442 km to go.

We drive through rather desolate country.

And then we reach the LIZARD ROADHOUSE. Looks good for another break.

We buy cold drinks, Hamburger and Hot Chips. And we eat some of our own food as well.

And on we go. We pass Melbourne Airport in the early afternoon and soon after reach Essendon where Martin, our son, is very happy to see us. He is surprised that we made it in such good time. Yes, we had a good run. No problems whatsoever. Martin straight away offers us tea and something to eat. In the evening he is going to drive to the airport to pick up daughter Lauren who’s on school holidays and going to stay with her Dad for one week.

Peter and I are very glad we’ll be able to stay with our son and granddaughter Lauren for one week. We haven’t seen Lauren for more than a year except for photos on facebook. She looks very beautiful. Soon she’s going to be fifteen. She’s our youngest granddaughter. But then we also have great-grandchildren already. Two of them we are going to see during our stay in Melbourne. The plan is, that we are going to see them on the following day, a Sunday. We are very much looking forward to this. We know that Lauren is also looking forward to see her two little nieces.

P.S. In another post I mentioned already our visit to Warburton where we saw Tristan, our grandson, his wife Stephanie and their two little daughters, our great-granddaughters. Today’s post about our trip from Mildura to Melbourne is an afterthought because I hadn’t published yet the pictures from that trip and I thought it would be nice to be able to share them. I really enjoyed this trip because everything went so smoothly and the trip didn’t take too long. When we travelled back home a week later from Melbourne to Dapto everything went smoothly too but that trip of course took much longer because it was a greater distance we had to cover within one day.

From Mildura to Melbourne

A Murray House Boat waiting for the weir

Seventeen days ago on a Friday we were in Mildura having a good time at the Murray River, watching a house boat approaching the weir.

Soon the boat was leaving - without us! — Soon the boat was leaving – without us!

Our Mildura friends took pictures of us.

We stayed Thursday night and Friday night in this motel.

By sunrise on Saturday morning we left Mildura. Soon we were on the Calder Highway on the way to Melbourne.

The Gossips Coffee Lounge

Peter had to see his eye specialist Friday morning at 10,45. His appointment took more than an hour. In the meantime I had a lovely cup of coffee at the gossips Coffee Lounge.

This is a book that the author Lily Brett signed for Peter and me when we saw her in Berlin. I like to brag about it that we’ve actually seen her in person.

As Peter was driving I happened to notice this sign. So I took a picture of it. Looks like this meal is of good value!

Anyhow, we were on our way home. I was looking forward to cook a bit of lunch at home. While I was cooking lunch I also had to put a frozen cake in the oven to bake in time for my visitors who were expected to arrive at 2 pm.

The pictures tell another story about having had a perfectly blue sky again on this beautiful Friday in the Illawarra.

The potatoes had already been cooked the day before. I just had to peel them and then cut them into pieces, the same with the red onion. I fried all this in some salted butter and then added some eggs and last but not least the baby spinach pieces I still happened to have in the fridge. Just a bit of ground sea salt and pepper. Voila, lunch was finished and tasted good. At least I thought so!

My friends arrived on time and we had our games of Scrabble and Rummy, same as on every Friday. Next Friday we’re going to play at Irene’s place again. Erica won’t be playing for the next six weeks though, for she’s going on an overseas trip.

Come to think of it, we had at least three perfectly sunny days in a row, namely Friday, Saturday and Sunday! And when our daughter came to visit us at the beginning of the week the weather was just wonderful too.

Here now a few pictures with Caroline, our daughter. These pictures were taken at her last visit here. She had to go back to Sydney the following day when we took her to the Dapto train station.

Caroline cooked this for us for breakfast.

Sunshine

We had wonderful sunshine yesterday at the Illawarra Regional Airport. For our lunch Peter and I as well as Tilde and Klaus had been sitting inside in the restaurant . We decided for coffee we would be sitting outside and maybe try some plane spotting.

We are so lucky: Today, Sunday, we have great sunshine again. Perfectly blue sky and pleasantly warm air. It feels like Indian summer or as they say in Germany “Alt Weiber Sommer” (summer of old women!) It’s late afternoon now and the temperature in the shade is still 26 Celsius. Simply wonderful for this time of the year.

We spent more than three hours yesterday at the airport restaurant. For coffee after lunch we had a really good time sitting outside in the sunshine. Nobody wanted to leave the place. The sun felt so good! We decided in about a month’s time the four of us would meet again for lunch at this restaurant. It’s always great to meet old friends again. We’ve known them since 1959. We came on the same boat together from Germany to Australia.

For good measure I took this picture of the opening hours as well as their website.

And yes, we were able to spot quite a few planes that were coming and going for joy flights with some lucky passengers up and away into the blue sky.

Lunch

Lunch was really what they call breakfast.

RIMG0096 — I ordered just scones and tea.

Peter gave me some of his ‘breakfast’ and I shared my scones with him.

The meal was completely satisfying. We didn’t feel like eating any more even though there was a good selection of cakes available.

This lunch was taking place on the day we picked up our hired car in Wollongong. Then we went for a drive up north along the coast till Bald Hill where you have this marvellous view across the ocean. From Bald Hill we went up to the escarpment and found this beaut cafe for our lunch.

Car Hire

We hired a car in Wollongong for a period of twelve days. The first day Peter took the car for a test drive along the coast North of Wollongong.

Via the Sea Cliff Bridge we went as far as Bald Hill.

The hang gliding hadn’t started yet on that day. There were already signs out that it would start soon.

From here you can see where we had come up along the Sea Cliff Bridge. We also had a brief stop near that little beach.

Along here you can walk to that little beach. We had stopped our car nearby.

We soon felt hungry and wanted to go some where for lunch. We actually did find a very nice place at the top of the escarpment where we had a lovely meal. We also took heaps of pictures from up there. I am going to publish some of these in my next post.

Monarch Cakes

Exactly one week ago we splashed out on some cake in St.Kilda. After Peter and I had spent some time in Central Melbourne around Swanston Street, we met up with Martin and Lauren again. The four of us boarded a tram to St.Kilda.

This cake was placed in one of the beautiful boxes for us to take home.

We had been looking for this particular place and were happy when we found it.

We went inside and selected some cakes. — We went inside and selected a few pieces of cake to have with some coffee.

And the coffee was great too.

The cake that we took home in the box turned out to be excellent too.

This St Kilda tram took us back to the city

The following day, Friday, 19th April, Lauren did go back to Newcastle. Her flight left very, very early in the morning!

Martin helping his daughter to catch her flight.

Thursday in Melbourne

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Uta at the entrance of the State Library, Melbourne Thursday, 18th April, 2013 — Uta at the entrance of the State Library, Melbourne
Thursday, 18th April, 2013

That Thursday was Lauren’s last day in Melbourne. She wanted to go to the Queen Victoria Markets on that day. Martin said he’d go with her. Peter and I announced that instead of going to the markets with them we’d pay the State Library a visit. Later on we could meet to go by tram to St. Kilda and splash out on some cake there!

We all caught the train from Essendon to Melbourne Central. The State Library was a few steps from there and the markets weren’t far away either. Before we went to the library Peter and I first of all looked for a place where we could sit down and have some morning tea. We soon found a lovely place that was just right for us.

During the early afternoon we met up with Martin and Lauren again and caught a tram to St. Kilda as planned. I’ll show pictures of St. Kilda and all the lovely cakes and Lauren’s departure to Newcastle in my next post.

When we met Noeleen the other day in Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn, there was a Readings Bookstore. We found out that in the State Library in Swanston Street, there is also a Readings Bookstore. I bought another book. It’s called a ‘Text Classics’. (textclassics.com.au) Copyright Robin Boyd Foundation 2010. They say ROBIN BOYD was arguably Australia’s most influential architect.