We are leaving Melbourne today but not until this evening so before we go we have one final walk to do. This one was called ‘Elegant Enclaves’ which is pretty much the parts of old Melbourne that still remain to the East of the city. The start of the walk was through Fitzroy gardens again then we started walking up and down there are a lot of Victorian houses in this area mostly built between the 1870s and 1893 and what is most notable is the fact that the iron railings are very elaborate and still there not something you particularly see still in England but I think that most of the iron was taken away to be melted into something during the war in England whereas here they obviously didn’t need to do that. There are some really nice terraces that were actually built as terraces and are still houses. Walking round it looks like a lot of the buildings have been brought up by developers and are in the process of being done up to be sold for a fortune. In with the Victorian houses are a few Art Deco buildings, mostly flats which have a very distinctive look about them. This area is also home to Melbournes longest terrace which consists of 16 homes again Victorian and very spectacular, the final house on the walk was Bishopscourt which has been home to the Anglican archbishops since 1853 and from what we could see of it they don’t slum it at all! We walked back to the hotel in time to have a coffee before checking out then having left our bags at the hotel we set off for one final look round Melbourne. Chris got a quick trim as we were walking past a barber that wasn’t busy, then set set off for the waterfront area and walked along the river. We found a nice pub to have lunch in and took our time over it as we have plenty of time before the ferry, then we went for a walk round a few shops before heading back to the hotel to pick up our cases and take a taxi round to the ferry terminal. We checked in and handed over our cases then went off in search of our cabin. We had paid a little bit extra to have one with a couple of seats and it was well worth it. The cabin was lovely and quite big, at right at the front so we have a great view, we even had a bottle of wine left for us, unfortunately it was red which we are not keen on but a nice touch. We settled in then went and brought our park pass for Tasmania, stopped at the bar to pick up a few beers then settled into the cabin for the 11 hour crossing, hopefully it won’t be too rough!
