The Royal Melbourne Show 2016

Sylvia was keen to visit the Royal Melbourne Agricultural Show (aka The Show) during the school holidays.  I took her along last week.  We went on rides, sampled food, admired cake decorating and came home with a handful of show bags.  Lots of fun but so expensive and so tiring.  Here are some photos.

Our first stop was the Ferris Wheel.  At $9 each, it was the most expensive ride we saw.  But who can resist riding up high for a bird's eye view of the showgrounds.

Here is one of the views from the top of ferris wheel.  The giant pie on the red frame is one of the icons of the showgrounds and we saw it appear on a few decorated cakes.  It is also the easily visible place for lost children.

I am sorry to say that Sylvia takes after me with height (or lack of).  She wasn't quite tall enough for the adult dodgems so I had to drive.  Maybe that was just as well.

Then we were hungry and headed off to the Woolworth's fresh food pavillion.  I really like this area which had lots of food tasting and a long row of street food stalls.  Sylvia had the cheese toastie and a macaron.  I decided to get a vegetarian hotdog from the hotdog stall but was not overly enthused about it.  I then got a corn on the cob which was great and later returned for a chocolate covered strawberry.  Sylvia got a mango ice cream from Fritz Gelato later. 

I enjoyed tasting the 5am yoghurt with museli, Spotted Dog fudge, Vegie Chips and spice mixes.  We purchased the Vegie Chips showbag (7 bags of chips for $7) and the Super Food Ideas showbag which was really heavy but excellent value for $10. (I am quite sure it would have bee the $86 value they claimed.)  The Vegie Chips were good snacks while wandering around.

Sylvia was keen to do the trampolines with elastic harnesses but the queue was moving too slowly.  Instead she went on the The Swing (as my niece and nephew assure me this ride is called).  My brother took his kids to the Show the day before me and said it was quiet but it was busy when we went.  We queued for the animal nursery and the showbag pavillion.

Sylvia did not enjoy the animal nursery at all.  (She really needs to rethink her idea that she will be a zookeeper when she grows up.)  So we went on the cup and saucer ride afterwards to cheer her up.

I loved the crochet covered animals.  (No they are not real, nor is the crocheted cow pat!)

We checked out some of the kids artwork.  Some of them have so much talent.

Then it was off to join the throng admiring the decorated cakes. We love the Studio Ghibli movies and so this cake was lots of fun.  We spotted characters from Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service and My Neighbour Totoro.

This little mouse cake was my favourite.  I loved the attention to detail but I think the powerpoint switch should be off if nothing is plugged in.  (Yes I can be a pedant!)

And who doesn't love a Wizard of Oz cake!

This gorgeous cake with the vegie garden on top is from the school children's cakes.  If they can do this now, what will they be doing in years to come! 

Sylvia stopped at the kid's craft tables where they decorated a little mushroom.  She was a bit tired by then and so I indulged her sitting and drawing windows and doors for a while before joining the other parents who were trying to convince their kids to move along.

The decorated cakes are the big draw but I also love seeing all the preserves and baking.  Luckily Sylvia loves it too.  We admired rainbow cakes, caramel slice, scones, shortbread, tomato sauce, marmalade, fete goodies, chocolates and breads.  I really loved these biscuits decorated with Aboriginal motifs.  I would have spent more time looking at the craft but Sylvia was tired.

Then we queued for the showbag pavillion.  It was a huge queue that walked up and down the rows.  I joked that it was a public health service to make people burn up the calories they would consume with all the sweet food in the showbags.  The pavillion is really overwhelming and was so busy.  I get amazed at people wandering around the show with lots of showbags but we managed to buy 5 including the two we bought at the fresh food pavillion.  Sylvia chose the Oreo showbag and the Best Friends Forever showbag.  We also bought the Turkish Delight showbag for E.

We were so tired by the time we got on the train that when we met friends coming off our train I am not sure I made much sense.  I was in bed early that night.  The next morning I took photos of some of the food from our showbags.  My mum has the fisherman's friends cough lollies packs and the dishwasher sample cleaner.  E is taking the prepackaged spag bol and coffee samplers.  Sylvia and I both want the vegemite bagel chips and chocolate macadamia spread.  We will all enjoy the apple liquorice and Lindt Chocolate and I am curious to try the kewpie mayonnaise samples.

You can also see my previous post on the Royal Melbourne Show visit in 2013. 

The Royal Melbourne Show
Melbourne Showgrounds, Flemington
http://www.royalshow.com.au/
17-27 September 2016