The clues for the second destination are as follows:

• Difficult for Jennifer – Founded by John Batman, this city was almost named “Batmania!”
• Medium for Alexander – This city is Australia’s sporting capital.
• Easy for Charlotte – Maybe you will feel like you are “bourne” again here.

Take a moment to venture a guess before scrolling down past the envelope pictures to reveal the answer.

The second destination is Melbourne, Australia! The first clue misled us to incorrectly guess Tasmania. The second clue did not immediately click for us but definitely made more sense after the third clue. This is a new first time location for everyone in our family!

A short flight on Virgin Australia brought us from Sydney to Melbourne. These two cities in Australia have a friendly rivalry and half of the Australian population reside in one of these two citifies. Australians love the coast, so although Australia is about the same size as the United States, the population is about the same as only New York.

We stayed at the InterContinental Melbourne The Rialto for three nights and had two full days for activities in Melbourne. We were still a bit jet lagged, so our days generally began in the dark before dawn and ended when we fizzled out when it got dark around dinner time.

On our full first day, we grabbed an early breakfast of toasties (grilled sandwiches) at The Simple Foodie before taking a self guided exploratory walk along the Yarra River through the maritime, arts, gardens, and sports areas of Melbourne.

To recover from miles of walking around the city in the chilly morning, we relaxed back at the hotel before our afternoon tour. Alexander and Charlotte swam and played in the indoor pool and wanted to have In n Out for lunch. We found Royal Stacks across the street from the hotel, which conveniently satisfied the kids’ craving for burgers (complete with a Tim Tam milkshake).

After lunch, Fred from Oceania Tours picked us up from the hotel and we spent an amazing rest of the day learning about native Australian animals at the Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Conservation Park in Pearcedale and witnessing the penguins parade at Phillips Island in Summerland. We ended the night full circle with views of the lit-up Melbourne skyline reflecting on the Yarra River.

We had another early start for our second and last full day in Melbourne. We took the free City Circle Tram from our hotel to the edge of the CBD city center where we met up with David from Wine Hop and Coastal Tours across the street from The Victoria Hotel. We hung our legs off the side of the Puffing Billy for a scenic steam train ride from Belgrave to Lakeside before spending a few hours at the Healesville Sanctuary to soak in more Australian native animals.

After a long day, we treated ourselves to some ice cream cones at the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie & Ice Creamery before having dinner at Alluvia back at our hotel.

We were not able to fit in the Great Ocean Road before leaving Melbourne this time, but would definitely have this on the top of our list for a return visit to Melbourne in the future.

Stay tuned as we move onto to Secret Trip 2.0 Destination #3!