Came home and apart from watching an episode of Survivor only managed to achieve one thing - getting photos online for our day in Cologne two years ago, where we walked up to the top of the cathedral, went on a walking tour of the old town, and did our washing.

It wasn't very well planned.  Apart from where we were going to be for how many nights, almost nothing was planned in advance.  We did a lot of our planning when we arrived in cities with Wikipedia.  But it still turned out really well, except for a couple of not so great days.

I said at the end of it that "Hopefully it won't take two years to do like my USA photos did..." and now here it is.. two years later...!  So I went on a mission over the last couple of weeks to select highlights for my photo site and from those highlights for the blog entries.  I haven't finished yet, but I've made decent enough progress.  Hopefully I'll keep ahead of myself to link to each new day as it comes.

So.  Day 1.  We left Sydney at Stoopid O'Clock and flew to Narita in Japan.  Had a walk around Narita and dinner a cute little restaurant.  

Here it is! Day 1 of our honeymoon, exactly two years ago today....

Cleaned up the house this morning, then waited around for Annie to come over (she was supposed to get here at 12, but didn't arrive to 1:30, so was totally starving by the time they got here).  So we went for a little walk, taking the kids to the park and going to the bakery for lunch.  

And no photos to mark the occasion.. doh!

Did our shopping in the arvo and had a $35 dinner ($19 bottle of wine, $13 worth of salmon and ~$3 asparagus).  Unfortunately I burnt the bottom of the salmon trying to get the skin crispy, but it was otherwise delicious and the asparagus was good too.

I could use another day of weekend though....

La Famiglia Pan Bread - this stuff is epic win!!

The photomosaic jigsaw I finished last weekend 

This morning we went into civic and had breakfast at Cream.  Was delicious.  Then looked in BigW for Toy Story Lego (nothing on special) and JB HiFi (bought a couple of cheap cds).

Had an epic nommm lamb roast for dinner, with herbed baked potatoes and these way cool carrots that Nat did (thinly-sliced carrots, butter and honey, wrapped in foil and bunged in the oven for as long as the roast).  1.3kg of lamb and only two slices of it left and no veggies left.. oops!  

But Vienetta for dessert!  Nommm!!

So around eating we played a bit of Wii Music (stupidest game in history because you can't skip the stoopid intro stuff and have do the whole tutorial - lame!!) and lots of Buzz. 

Was a lots fun evening :):)

The rest of the day was catching up on news feeds (down to 138!), the photomosiac jigsaw (finished it!), sorting photos and cleaning the house...

Aimed to leave the hotel at 9am this time (since it was "really" 10am), giving us an extra hour in Melbourne :)

Decided that we were going to go do the super duper expensive hotel restaurant.  Turns out it was an all you can eat buffet for $35 each.  I only managed to get two plates worth of food in (I never get good value out of all you can eats!)

Went back to our room and packed up, then checked out and left our bags with the concierge, and Nat and I did a quick photoshoot of the hotel.

Went for a wander up Exhibition St.  Saw sushi burgers and a sign saying nothing happened.

Then wandered up through Exhibition gardens (Carlton Gardens) to the Exhibition Building.

I was most surprised when we got around to the north side of the building because there was a whole museum that wasn't there fifteen years ago!  Made taking photos from the north a little difficult heh.

Decided that we'd actually go into the museum and have a look.

Pygmy blue whale skeleton

Flutterbies?

Big taxidermy room "Wild" .. at least a lot better organised than the one in Japan

And we have a thylacine too!

I had a long wander through the body exhibit, and then a quick run through the mind exhibit (would love to have spent longer there) before meeting up with the others to decide on a plan.  While everyone decided what we were doing next, I raced up to take some photos of Phar Lap (would liked to have looked through the whole Victoria exhibit there as well)....

So went back to the others and we walked up to Lygon Street.  Although we didn't have time to sit down and eat, Nat got some take away pasta from one place.  Next time we'll organise ourselves better to actually eat here properly.

And then it was back to the hotel to pick up our bags, and hop in a taxi to head off to the airport. 

Our plane back - Virgin Blue 737-8Q8 (VH-VOU)

We didn't get much of a view during the flight because it was dark, but we did get a nice sunset from the plane on the tarmac

So arrived back in Canberra and Andrew drove us home.

Totally great weekend away, lots of fun, and even a decent amount of exercise :)  

We want to come again next year and organise ourselves better to see some of the comedy festival and have a proper meal on Lygon Street :)

Watched our plane pull up, and took our seats up the back of the 737.  Fairly average lunch, and otherwise standard sort of flight.

Qantas 737-476 "Currawong" (VH-TJU)

Lake Eucumbene

Khancoban Pondage

Lake Dartmouth

Last getting off the plane, but no wait at all for bags :)

Then hopped in a taxi (no queue!) and headed into the city.

The Giant Cheese Stick and Zipper (aka "Melbourne International Gateway")

Our hotel (the Stamford on Little Collins) was very swishy for the cheap end of the swishy market.  Super cool glass elevators :)

Our room

View from our room window

We essentially just dumped all our stuff before heading out again for a wander.

Wandered past Hosier Lane and saw some people photographing the graffiti so went to see what they were looking at.  Found several adjoining lanes covered in lots of cool graffiti (there was even some being created while we were there!). 

Moving on, walked past Federation Square (which didn't exist last time I was in Melbourne)

.. and an Apple store ..

.. and past Flinders Street station (with the new Eureka tower behind it - also not there last time I was in Melbourne)

Then headed across the Yarra River 

MCG from Princes Bridge

Lights on Princes Bridge

Took photos of the Arts Centre

.. and horse and carriages on St Kilda Road

Then wandered through Southbank.  Stopped at this point for a snack to keep us going, as we thought we'd be having a late dinner.  

This girl played short pieces from a stack of tunes.. a lot of movie soundtracks .. we were having a guessing game of what they were while we had our snacks.

Next we headed for the Eureka Tower.  Fifteen years ago I went up the Rialto Tower.  This one is a fair bit bigger.

It has bugs on it!

We headed up to the Eureka Skydeck 88 ($16.50 each).  Unfortunately it's a disaster for photography.  The windows are tinted blue and gold in different sections which screws up colour balances, the glass is *very* reflective, and the building is at all different angles.  We didn't even attempt to do any sort of panorama.  But we did spend ages up there taking photos and looking at stuff (and went outside to get blown away, but didn't do the Edge which was another $12 or so).  

South west Melbourne CBD, including the Rialto Towers, Spencer St, the stadium and Docklands.  

Tinted windows

Flinders Street station and Federation Square

Spirit of Tasmania coming in to dock

We hung around for about an hour waiting for the sun to set so we could see the place at night, but after an hour (when it was just starting to get dark) we gave up and headed back down.

The Yarra River is a lot prettier at night than during the day..

Walked past Flinders Street station

.. and wandered up Swanston Street and ended up at City BBQ Chinese Restaurant in China Town.  Dinner was ok.  We shoulda ordered less food.  Or made one of the dishes vegetables.  It was a very *brown* meal.

Wandered back down Russell Street.  

Was amused by the plastic food we saw in one place.

Dropped off the sweetie who had had enough, then went out again looking for ice cream.  Tried bottom of Swanston St and Federation Square without success.  Then went across to Elizabeth Street and walked all the way up it to La Trobe Street before heading back, eventually getting Magnums at a local minimart place.  I suppose we can't complain - it was Good Friday yet there was *heaps* of stuff open, and open til late too.  Don't think that'd happen in Canberra!

"The Public Purse" - sculpture we liked in the Bourke St Mall

And so ended Good Friday.  It was a pretty good Friday :)  Lots of walking (really should replace the battery in the pedometer!) 

And this blog post only took fifty minutes to do.. no wonder I've been putting it off for days..

Cause today Violet Grace decided to enter the world.  If she'd come yesterday or tomorrow she'd have been someone else (name-wise), quite funny really.

It was all fairly civilised really.  They sent Jake off to school.  Then labour started so they went to hospital.  Kerry had an epidural so was relatively relaxed through the whole process.  Baby delivered at 3pm.  We arrived with Jake about 6:30, making this the youngest baby I've ever seen (previously it was Marc at 10 hours old).

Family photo

The t-shirt colour I had seemed somehow appropriate...

Saw this rainbow on the living room carpet the other morning.  It refracted through the fish tank and looked pretty cool.

The first fog of the season.  I thought this was pretty early for fog (23rd March)

They're colour-coding the data centre at the moment, so they have all these cool coloured cat5 cables.

Wow.. two rainbows in one entry .. hrmm

I'll post coast trip photos tomorrow..