Ferry to St Kilda and Eureka Skydeck
A later start this morning and decided to take a ferry along the bay to St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne. We booked the tickets online before leaving the hotel because we didn’t want to risk there being no room for us. Did note that the ferry had been cancelled the previous day due to the rough water conditions (didn’t tell John that!). Short walk to get the tram to take us to Port Melbourne. We were expecting to see something like the ferry to Aran, ferry was due to depart at 11.30 , but there was nothing there. On time a small boat turned up crewed by the captain, his dog and his mate. We were the only passengers on board. We sailed out to Williamstowns , getting good views of the Melbourne skyline. Stopped here for 10 minutes (lovely fish shop with oysters and lobsters) and two more people got on board. Then a slightly longer trip to St Kilda with slightly rougher water. St Kilda is a lovely seaside area with a Victorian pier which is being re-developed and a lot of arts venues and a funfair. We walked along the esplanade and had time for lunch (fish and chips (with head attached) and avocado salad and potato wedges). Then time to take the reverse ferry journey back to Melbourne. The rest of the afternoon took us to the Eureka Tower, the 2nd tallest building in the southern hemisphere. A lift rapidly took us up to the 88th floor and the observation deck for clear views over the city, including the Australian Open tennis. The highlight was the experiencing “the Edge”. This is a glass cube with a glass floor. When we entered the glass was opaque. Slowly the cube was propelled 3 metres out from the side of the building and the glass cleared to give clear views of the ground 88 floors beneath us.
