Day 1 - Down to Melbourne

Today turned out to be a day of transport challenges. Hopefully we got them all out of the way on Day One. Nothing too dramatic, to be honest. We had planned to catch the “Bus to Budapest” from down on Braedene Dve but, due to a lack of forward planning simple, we missed it by a few minutes and the next one wasn’t for another hour so straight onto the phone I went and a cab arrived about ten minutes later to take us to Bendigo station. We’ve been walking past the same bus stop every day for months – should’ve thought to stop and look at the timetable for Saturdays. Doh!

 

The trip to Southern Cross station in Melbourne was uneventful, save for the entertainment provided by a young mother trying to wrangle her kids. She did a great job. A quick detour to the Great Southern Hotel on Spencer St to check-in and drop-off our bags and we were back at the station looking for a train to Blackburn to visit Mum. The Great Southern is not flash by any means but it’s relatively cheap, it’s clean and has everything one needs for an overnight stay. Its location is perfect and in a great location – near the station which makes it close to the bus to the airport. We got to Flinders St station to find that there were no trains to Blackburn starting or ending there today – or the entire Glen Waverley line for that matter. Track maintenance or something. So we caught the No. 70 tram to Burnley and finally a train to Blackburn and a bus to Marama St. Mum was in good spirits and happy to see us before we headed off on this adventure.

A cab back to the station (it was getting too cold to stand up on Blackburn Rd waiting for a bus) and then back to Burnley and the No. 70 tram back to Flinders St. The plan was going well until we learned from a very helpful young girl that the lack of trams coming down Swan St was due to a broken down car blocking the track way back in Hawthorn. All trams were being diverted down Bridge Rd. So we started walking towards the city. By the time we’d arrived in the main Richmond Sth shopping precinct the trams has begun to run again. We waited at Stop No. 10 for the next one to come along. I looked up and found myself gazing across the road to 147 Swan St, the very same building I started work in 48 years ago! The very crowded tram took us to Spencer St and a quick walk up the hill found us back at the Great Southern. Thus ended a challenging day of travel on our public transport system – except for the 2.5 hrs spent at Mum’s we were on the go for about 10 hours, I reckon. Upon later reflection, there were no games at all at the MCG today so perhaps that’s why the authorities chose to shutdown the system on a beautiful, sunny autumn afternoon in the school holidays.