Bendigo

Refreshing little weekend trips. Mm mm. This time, it was Bendigo! It's about a 2 hour drive, north west from Melbourne. The trip was pretty random in that we just made short detours to little towns along the way, before checking in at Quality Inn Colonial. Apparently, Bendigo is a very kid-friendly town, with quite a few attractions for kids such as taking the "Talking Tram" and a cave mining experience.

Here are some things we did, just in case you think of visiting one day: 

^ If you are going by Bendigo, I would really recommend The Woodhouse, especially if you love woodfired pizza. If you go on a Friday or Saturday night, it would be a good idea to book because the place was almost packed, and the waiter told us that it was "slow"for a Saturday night. ^

^ The pizza was ~A$21 which is reasonable for a nice place. The meat mains are more expensive. ^

^ The Food and Wine Expo happened to be in Bendigo that weekend, so. ^

^ We watched Masterchef winner Emma Dean whip up some dishes and bought that awesome yellow grinder thing. Apparently you can grind things like garlic on it to get a good paste. The juices will be retained, so it's more potent and you can use less. ^

^ We had pottery lessons at Bendigo Pottery! Potter Barry was very friendly. We made 3 pieces in half an hour for A$15 each. It felt more like Barry made the pieces because he would ask us what we wanted to do, then he would create the rough shape, move our hands to mould it, then let us play with the shape. But he probably had to or we would be bringing home mangled pieces of clay. 

It was quite magical to watch the clay spin and move in his hands, and we had our fair share of moulding fun. ^

^ The 3 pieces on the front row are ours. We left them there to be glazed and put through the crazy heat to make it strong. A$10/piece, and A$14 postage for 3 pieces to Melbourne. ^

^ Visited Brewhouse. Vintage schoolhouse seating in the corner. ^

We tried to visit Colliers Chocolate Farm but couldn't find it. In the end we called the number on the flyer and the man on the other end of the line said they had stopped their chocolate shop operations for three years! I told him about the flyer I picked up from the Information center and he said he told them to take them off the shelves but this still happens. Quite funny. Three years!

^ Duckie family at the Botanic Gardens in just-nice spring weather ^

^ Mega church building. ^

^ And looking forward to more trips with my travel companion! ^