We are in Australia, the land down under.  And now we are in Melbourne, the very south point of Australia.  So, we are, down under in the down under. 

We arrived in Melbourne at noon, it’s kind of like Portland in that we took on a pilot at 8 this morning and wondered through the bay in a narrow channel until we finally arrived in Melbourne.

A bit over an hour later we boarded buses for our second GALA event. Exclusive to World Cruises. As you recall, our first GALA was in Los Angeles and was the most amazing time.

The buses took us to a beautiful valley of grape vines as far as you could see. We stopped at an amazing vineyard and were treated to three sparkling wines that were better than any sparkling wine that we have ever tasted.  We were “treated “to an opera performance. 

Well, I’ll tell you right now that I do not like the soprano voice of any opera. 

As the first song was introduced, there was a loud clap of thunder and lightning.  Then it started raining on us.  I was laughing and thinking I’m not the only one that hates this. The performance lasted about 45 minutes and as soon as she said this is our last song, the rain stopped and I saw blue sky.  I don’t want to tell you what to think about that, develop your own conclusion.

On top of the fantastic sparkling wines, they served amazing tapas. Scallops, shrimp, and wagyu beef to mention a few. 

Too soon, they loaded us onto the buses for a five-minute drive to another vineyard. Again, it was spectacular.   We were treated to a four-course dinner with paired wine with each course. Seabourn flew their President in to address us. They think of everything.

We are here at the optimum harvest time and one of our courses included grapes from the harvest. I noticed that we all had different grapes, so we started trading around.  These grapes were absolutely amazing.  The taste, the sugars, the future wines were all there for us. I especially enjoyed them because of my brewing background. I could appreciate how the sugars would become amazing wines.

It was an incredible experience. We got back to the ship about 10. Kinda late for us old people.

We were in Melbourne over night, so when we woke up, we moved out to our  veranda, we  heard  a very unique bird song.  Trying to identify where it came from, it was clearly coming from the ship. It was getting louder so we really wanted to find the source.  Then it appeared right in front of us, from above, not a bird at all, but the gondola they use to wash the windows.  Fooled again.    

We had a lazy day Saturday in Melbourne, Kim took a walk on the beach.  There were lots of activities on the beach, sports, sailing, and an unusual relay race type of tic tack toe. 

And lots of shells.

In just one week, Melbourne will host the formula one race and it will be anything but a lazy day.  I know my brother and nephew would love to be here.

NFL will be here too.  The Rams and the 49ers will play in the iconic Melbourne Cricket Grounds.

The other night when I went to dinner and Kim had room service, I had to go to two restaurants to get what I wanted.  At the first place I got a lobster tail. 

Then I went to the second restaurant for this.

Bacon wrapped bread stick, panco fried shrimp and bone-in ribeye steak.

When I got back to the room, I called room service for my desert. 

Our room now has a Australian Indigenous Flag on the wall. At the sail away party there were both the Austrailian Flag and this one. Kim said she loved this flag and wanted one. So, I talked to my favorite bartender and all of the sudden it magically showed up in our room. It’s Seaboourn, just ask.

As I told you before, there are a lot of visitors that come on board at our stops.  This is a first for us, we’ve not seen this before.  While in Melbourne, this passenger couple brought on eight guests.  They had a free lunch and then gathered on my new deck 9 for drinks.  They had three rounds of drinks before saying their goodbyes.  After they were gone, I asked Savas, the bartender, do they at least tip you for your service?  His answer was never in my career has a visitor given me a tip.  That is so wrong, if I had visitors come aboard, I would explain ahead of time that food and drink are free but bring tip money for the servers.  Is that not reasonable?

I’ve already introduced you to my friend Engin, the bartender.  I try to stay away from him because he is more a drink pusher than a drink server.  He constantly brings me drinks that I did not order.    I was surprised to see him yesterday morning on deck 9, but he asked me what I wanted to drink and I said iced tea in a short glass with easy ice.  When it came, it was in the right glass, it had six ice cubes and looked exactly like it should.  Then, I took a gulp and immediately spit it back into the glass.  It was a full glass of bourbon!  It’s barely 11 o’clock in the morning.  When Savas showed up a few minutes later and asked how I was doing, I told him to smell my iced tea.  He did and made a face, that;s not iced teas.  I told him that Engin was trying to kill me.  He laughed and took it away.  Soon, all was well and I was drinking Iced tea for real. 

I also told you about Samuel, the voice of room service.  He didn’t join us in Melbourne as expected.  We found out he was still in the hospital in Sydney.  We couldn’t get any more information about him. 

More later……………….