''G'day, g'day, g'day''

MELBOURNE, Australia – The expressions ''G'day, g'day, g'day'' and ''Beer O'Clock'' come from this Australian metropolis, at least for D&E. But ''hang on a tick,'' more on that later.

The Travellers arrived here after midnight, and went straight to their apartment-hotel in the center of town. Didn't see much at night, but it would be love at first sight in the morning. Melbourne seems to have gotten this whole city 'thing' right, a great mix of urbane and laid back even though it was gearing up for the Australia open tennis.

Eva was especially pleased by all the street artwork downtown, while Doug found it highly pleasant just to walk around, take a ferry ride , ride the tram (trolley) and have a beer in an outdoor cafe.

Melbourne is also, probably, the only place in Australia where D&E had acquaintances ahead of arrival. There was Simon, a colleague of Doug's from the 2008 Olympics in China who officially declared the time of ''Beer O'clock each afternoon'', and Morrie (Morris) from the Africa trek, who got D&E started saying ''G'day, g'day, g'day'' rather than ''Cheese'' each time they posed for a picture.

Simon is a British journalist who was travelling around the world a decade ago and never made it past Australia. That sort of serendipity in planning appeals to Doug, and they hit if off in China, and caught up over lunch in Melbourne.

The next day, Morrie, ''a young 65,'' came into town to pick us up. Morrie took early retirement as a math teacher, and has been spending the past decade or so in a determined and impressive quest to see the world's key sights, such as Antarctica and southern Africa. We're not sure if he was pleased or discouraged when we mentioned that the polar bears of Norway's Svalbard Islands were missing from his list, so we expect to see him along our fjords shortly after he does Burma.

Anyway, Morrie took us to his home to dump our backpacks, and the drove us up into the forests for a fantastic hike, which included close encounters with cockatoo birds. He also made us his speciality Morrie's Baked Salmon for dinner, took us for another walk, and made us feel right at home. The next morning, he drove us up to the Healesville Sanctuary, where we got the see the whole assortment of Australian wildlife, including koalas, Tasmanian Devils and wombats.

There would be peace on earth if every country had its fair share of wombats.

After our one of our best days in Australia _ when we saw more in 24 hours than in a week on our own _ he took us to the airport for our next leg, Hobart, Tasmania. Thanks Morrie!

Thanks Melbourne!

Bruce and Sheila