After our half day at Bond on Wednesday, it was time to leave warm sunny Gold Coast, for our first real taste of an Australian winter. We arrived in Melbourne mid-afternoon on Wednesday, and the first thing that was readily apparent is that we are much farther south than we have been.  It was a bit overcast, winter being the wet season in Victoria, and not even 60, which in Australia, feels a bit chilly.

We caught a taxi to the hotel in the CBD (Central Business District) of Melbourne, and then headed out for dinner on Ligone Ave.  Ligone is known as the Italian area, and while we didn’t know that, we did have Italian that evening for dinner.  One of the owners had recently returned from the US and was a bit of a trickster.  He took to Tara and picked on her a good bit with his gags and jokes.  Fortunately, she was in good humor about it, and she was rewarded with a Baileys on the rocks, so it was all good.