Melbourne: Part II

After touring the downtown area of Melbourne, which you can read about here, we wanted to check out some other parts of town.

On the second day, we walked from the part of town we were staying in, Brighton, to St. Kilda (about 6-7 km).  The walk by the Bay is lovely, peaceful and gives you a view of some of the nicest real estate in the city.

St. Kilda is an interesting part of town that, after a period of being dodgy, is returning to its original glory.  

After our walk, we were ready for lunch.  We took our chances and tried Rococo.  We started with a Caprese salad and each ordered a panini.   

Both tasted really good and really hit the spot!  

After spending some more time walking around St. Kilda, we were drawn in by the dessert window at the Acland Cake Shop.

Source

Unfortunately, I think in this case, it looks better than it tastes.  I got a vanilla slice.  The custard was sticky and hard to swallow and the pastry was so hard, it was difficult to break apart.

R wasn't a big fan of his dessert either.  

The restaurant is in need of some updating and the bathrooms were in need of toilet paper.  I got the impression that it was a long-run family business, run by people who lost their passion for desserts and customer service a long time ago.

On a different day, we visited the Queen Victoria Market.  The market has the distinction of being the largest market in the southern hemisphere.  

The market has rows upon rows of household items, clothing, shoes, jewellery, etc. 

Produce

Meats

We stopped in the food court for lunch.

and got some famous jam donuts for dessert

After the market, we quickly made our way back downtown to go watch an Aussie Rules football game.  Melbourne is the hub of Aussie Rules, which is actually more popular in Australia than is rugby.  Thankfully, we were with fans of the sport who could explain how the game is played.

We watched a big game between the Richmond Tigers vs Essendon.  The guys we were with were cheering for (or as they say in Australia, barracking for) the Tigers.  The atmosphere was great, with somewhere around 80,000 spectators.

In the end, the Tigers won and their theme song was played: