Me and Nancy had a long weekend, almost all taken up with a trip to Melbourne with our g'son B. The centrepiece of the weekend was the big game between Canada and USA on Friday night, so we got there late on Thursday so we'd be fit and fine for it. Which meant that we had all of Friday in which to do things in Melbourne. So, seeing as B and I just 'happened' to bring our skates with us, we had the opportunity we needed to set off in search of the Ice House to get a bit of skating in.
For those that don't know, the Ice House is Melbourne's main ice rink and is located on land's edge in the Dockland's of Melbourne. It lies tucked in under the 'Melbourne Eye' giant ferris wheel, down a short street near the end of tram route 35 (Melbourne's free burgundy coloured city loop tram service). So it's easy to get to - if you know how to get there.
We didn't, so had a bit of an adventure walking through the docklands district, trying to work out who to ask for directions as we went. The trouble was, of course, that almost everyone we saw could well have been a 'tourist' like us. We got around it by asking the workers - a taxi driver, a gas fitter and a road worker. They all came good for us and between their advices and our walking we finally found the joint. B reckoned we walked about 5 km, I reckon around three. Either way, we got there with a tour of the neighborhood thrown in.
The Ice House has two full sized rinks, one of which has all the dress ups for high level hockey, speed skating and, presumably, figure skating. That rink was in use for some hockey training when we got there, was empty most of the time, and had a couple senior hockey players warming up on it as we left.
The other rink was moderately busy with skaters, most of them beginners in Melbourne's equivalent of the Ice Arena's blue skates. About a third of it was separated by a temporary barrier, and there was curling introductory lessons (or so it looked) on the other part of the ice. Watching the curling, I felt a little jealous of them because that is such a fun sport to play. I was also a little cynical because I suspect that I wasn't seeing eager fans but some form of corporate team building exercise occurring. I guess, 'whatever it takes,' though. So, we occupied ourselves with some basic skating amongst the beginners. Only really got to speak much to the one other kid, around 12 years old from Montreal who spoke French and liked the Canadiens.
I thought the rink was a bit overpriced for the period that we were there (about an hour and a half) but won't say too much because we could have stayed there a lot longer (public session is apparently 0900 - midnight). In other words, no complaints. The ice was level and didn't have too much snow on it, much smoother than the Ice Arena. I'll have to ask B what he thought of it.
I found a little time to do my basic skills exercises, about all I could safely manage after a week and a half of not being on the ice. Even so, I went over at least twice and found my stops required a little time on ice before was confident enough to commit. I didn't push it too hard in any of the usual metrics, just basically reminding my body what the ice is like.
I didn't want to get hurt before the trip back into town to our apartment before we headed out to the big game.
A good afternoon.
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