We made it to Melbourne! (not without challenges, flight delays, and for a few moments, a missing visa – but we are in the Land Down Under). Melbourne, a larger city on the not-very-warm Tasman Sea, much flatter than Auckland, still clearly a member of the British Empire. People are very polite, queue up nicely, and favor meat pies and plenty of liquor.

Our goal on this leg of the trip is – catch some tennis at a Grand Slam, this time at the Australian Open. The grounds are Huge, very spread out, and well-appointed (as they say here). Most of the courts have stands with shade coverings. They take sun protection seriously and most people wear hats and seek sun cover.

So far the weather has ranged from 97 degrees with play suspended due to the heat rule to below 60 and wind gusts above 25 mph as well as a full day of rain.

I’m surprised by the crowds! Every court accessible to Grounds Pass tickets is full and then some. You wouldn’t know it by the number of spectators on Rod Laver and Margaret Court, where the lower stands are used for sponsors – those are almost empty. But the “little people” are crazy to watch tennis, especially their own Aussie players.

When we aren’t at the tournament, we have checked out the beach. It’s chilly for swimming, but the kite surfers and sailors are happy with the winds here.

And because I thought it was cool –

We’ve seen Tiafoe, Zverev, Muguruza, Ben Shelton, Seb Korda, Mackie MacDonald and Brandon Nakashima, Mertens, Katie Volynets, Jenson Brooksby, JJ Wolf, and more. Hoping for some doubles this evening and will find out what we will see on Rod Laver tomorrow. Hope everyone is surviving the snow, stay warm!