Melbourne Cup

Upon hitting the streets of Sydney, I commented to Annette that the temperature must be pushing the high 90’s. (We just arrived and hadn’t fully switched to Celsius mode yet). Even to the surprise of the locals, Sydney was having a major one day heat wave with temperatures above 36C (97F).

Our first order of business was to find food and beverages. It may have been Tuesday morning, but our internal clocks were telling us it was late Monday afternoon. As it turned out, the Aussies were already pouring down the suds in celebration of the Melbourne Cup.

Until this point in our lives we had never heard of the Melbourne Cup. It’s a horse race similar to the Kentucky Derby, except it seems to engulf the entire nation. People take the day off and every restaurant was booked for celebratory lunches with expensive set menus.

The locals like to dress up for Melbourne Cup day, especially the women. Approximately every other girl was wearing a prom dress and an elaborate hat. Annette tells me a lot of the guys had nice suits on as well. Was a good day for people watching.


This link has a pretty good example of Melbourne Cup Fashion.

With all the private events going on in the area, finding lunch took some time. Eventually we found a Turkish kabob stand with outdoor seating along the sidewalk. The food and beer were fair, but it was nice to finally sit down and relax for a moment. We saw this fellow sitting at an adjacent table.


The hotel took their time getting the room ready. We checked back a couple of times and finally got our room around three in the afternoon. I switched on the television and happened to catch the start of the Melbourne Cup race. Good timing! We were able to see what the locals were all hyped up about. It was a good race with a come from behind win by a horse named Shocking.

Refreshed, we left the hotel and did the Hop-On Hop-Off tour that most major world cities have. Taking the full loop is a good way to get orientated to an area, and then get off and on as desired. As we suspected, Sydney is pretty much just another big city with business, residential and industrial areas. The Rocks (old Sydney) was the place to be!