Christmas in Melbourne

Day 21:
Christmas day. And on top of that, the first Christmas day that Jill and I have spent together.

This day started differently than most in that we slept in. I mean really slept in. It must have been 10.00 before we finally got out of bed. We both did some Skyping with family and friends (it was funny since it was Christmas Eve for them) and generally got a late start.

Think about this for a moment. You’re in a strange city and you don’t have any family around. You can’t exchange gifts since you didn’t have room in your luggage for them. So what do you do? What’s open in Melbourne (either one) on Christmas morning?

Well it turns out that about the only thing was some I love and Jill hates; the Royal Botanical Garden! We took a lovely stroll through what is really a monstrous park. I can’t recommend this enough. If you are in Melbourne (Australia) you must spend a few hours there. It was about five degrees cooler, very shady, and nearly everything was in bloom. Even Jill enjoyed our time there.

The evening though was another of my favorite activities. We went to the movies! We went and saw Australia in a ‘Gold Class’ screening. This was a theater with only 16 seats, all recliners, personal wait staff, and a nice bar and lounge for before the movie. This is definitely the direction that movie theaters need to go if they want to stay relevant in the future. We paid about three times a normal ticket price and felt that it was worth every penny.

That finished off a nice Christmas day for us and we got a good night’s sleep for the next day.

Jill Update:
Christmas time is nearly here we’re having a great time. It’s been three weeks since we started this adventure and I couldn’t imagine doing it with anyone but her. Merry Christmas to everyone (especially those in the northern hemisphere).