The Australian Open with Tal!

Excited about getting to the Australian Open, we couldn’t get off the ship fast enough when we arrived in Melbourne after three days at sea. The best part was that Tal met us at the hotel that he had arranged for us and we were over the moon to have a chance to see him again! He has moved to Switzerland with his family and has a new job. After a few months of orientation, he was assigned four countries where he manage sales for the company. One of the countries just happens to be Australia (the others are Portuagal, Dubai and Denmark). He had already been in Australia for several days for work and I can’t tell you how much fun our reunion was! SO exciting!

We headed straight for the Open and saw some terrific matches!

 

Here is the gargantuos crowd outside Court 17, just to watch Federer warm up!

 

…and the veiw from the other side…look at those people lined up eight deep on the veranda above just to get a glimpse of “The Fed.”

The Hotel was the former Train Administration Building and was pretty incredible. The Halls were wider then most rooms! It was close to the Open and had two stories. We slept upstairs and Tal claimed that three couch cushions lined up were a very comfortable bed in the living room! 

We were with our good friends the Ridds. Randall plays tennis with Rick every week so they were like kids in a candy store at the Open! We ate at some elegant restauratns and some not so elegant, but filling!

 

We saw a pretty cool car in the parking garage and enjoyed the night life of the beautiful city of Melbourne.

On Sunday we attended church meetings within walking distance of our hotel and explored Melbourne on the way home. On Monday we went back to the Open for our final day and saw an outstanding match where Raonic defeated Wawrinka in five set!  Also fun to watch Monfils and the Bryan twins.

After three days and lots of great talks with our beloved Tal, we bid him farewell. He was on his way to Sydney for a week where he would be enjoying Australia Day in a local manager’s yacht in the Sydney Harbor. What a job (Hard but Good)! 

On to our favorite place in Indonesia: BALI!