McLaren F1 Grand Prix racing cars were the attraction for a once in a lifetime trip to visit Melbourne Australia in March 2009 for the 25th Australian Grand Prix which was the opening race in the 2009 calender. Karen had very kindly allowed me to go without her whilst she stayed at home and managed her antique silver business. I however was intent on visiting this fascinating city and fulfilling a lifetime ambition to visit Australia.

 

 

I was fortunate to have a colleague from work with the same ambition and Andy and I set forth on the huge journey form cold Heathrow to Melbourne via Singapore. I am over 6 feet tall and made the mistake of only booking an economy class seat on a Qantas Airlines Jumbo 747. If anyone is thinking of going on a long haul I would recommend upgrading to premium economy or business class as over 21 hours crammed into one tiny seat is not a joyful experience. 

 

 

 

 

 

Still once we had arrived what a joy Melbourne was. A city so clean and full of helpful polite Aussies impressed me no end. We had booked 6 nights in the Radisson Flagstaff Gardens and the hotel was clean and tidy with good sized air conditioned rooms - we would recommend it to anyone.

 

 

 

  

Being a boys holiday we ate out as much as we could and quickly found a cheap cafe for a full fried breakfast and take away sandwiches for lunch costing $A 15 each about £7.50 which fed us until the evening meal. Josies food bar at the Victorian Market is a must for a fat boys breakfast.

 

  

 

We toured the city and were impressed by the cheap and fantastic public tram service. $A6.40 for an all day ticket (about £3.40 ) you could travel all day in zone 1. Even better was the FREE tourist bus and FREE tourist tram service around the key parts of the city.

 

 

 

 

Eating out was easy in the evenings with good restaurants all over the city but we particularly liked those in Hardware Lane. These were a series of restaurants in one street with outside street tables where you could eat and people watch at the same time. VONS restaurant was doing a special offer of two courses and a free glass of wine for $A28 about £14 which we thought a bargain.

I even attempted a Kangaroo steak which got me in trouble with Karen who was appalled that I had eaten Skippy! I also had my first Barramundi fish and chips. Still when in Rome (Australia) do as the Romans do!

 

 

 

 

The purpose of the trip was the Grand Prix at Albert Park. What a fantastic location with its lake and trees surrounded by a street circuit like no other. We had bought Jones Stand tickets from ticketek.com.au which gave us access to most parts of the track. It even gave us a pit lane walk on the Wednesday before the GP and a Pit Straight walk on the Sunday race day. The weather was great in the mid 20's and we had great pleasure in watching the Aussie racing cars,V8's,mini challenge,classic racers and formula ford before the main F1 event.

 

I could go on all day about the actual race and subsequent controversy with Lewis Hamilton and the McLaren F1 Team but suffice to say it was brilliant to be there to see Jensen Button win his second F1 win in the new Brawn car. With Rubens Barrichello in second it was a brilliant result for Ross Brawn and the canny investor Richard Branson who now sponsors them.

 

 

 

It was all over in a flash and we spent our last day visiting the St Kilder Beach suburb where we dipped our toes in the ocean and watched the kite surfers before heading back to the cold UK. Some 21 miserable hours later in a new Airbus A380 with Qantas and the boyhood dream was over.

 

 

 

Still I have fantastic memories of a great city and race and can highly recommend Melbourne as a place to visit. Below are some images of the trip - double click any image to enlarge.

 

 

 

Now its back to reality and cleaning silver for Karen who sacrificed a trip of a lifetime to continue running silver2treasure. She is a Treasure herself. Having eaten Skippy I felt obliged to buy a peace offering and brought a stuffed Skippy home for her.

 

You can vote in our GP picture competition HERE

Below is a selection of silver offered for sale from Silver2treasure.