Dora Bramden’s Honeymoon in the Wine District of Rutherglen Victoria Australia

 Monday, we arrived at Carlyle House in the afternoon. The Victorian facade with gables and verandas decorated with iron lace set the tone for a romantic honeymoon. The owner greeted us and showed us through the high ceilinged ornate entrance hall to our suite. Carlyle House had once been a doctors residence and we were staying in what had once been the consulting rooms converted into a lovely lounge, bedroom and ensuite. They had been named The Tokay suite and were to be our home for the next four nights.

On entering we were greeted with a white MR & MRS sign sitting on the fireplace and rose petals scattered on the hearth area. On the king size bed was a tray with champagne and chocolates and a little dish of blueberries and strawberries. After the romance of our wedding, the honeymoon suite didn’t disappoint.

We began exploring the wine district on Tuesday. After a walk up and down the shops in the main street, and a drive around the town of Rutherglen we had lunch at De Bortoli.  Sam and I couldn’t stop talking about how delicious our meal was. The glass wall of the restaurant looked onto a formal and elegant courtyard. A center fountain focal surrounded by artistic plot plant displays. This made the dining experience very enjoyable.

That evening we went to one of the pubs for dinner and enjoyed well-prepared staples. It was crowded in the pub and we enjoyed seeing who else was dining there.

The next day we drove to Corowa (a nearby town on the Murray River) and walked the shopping district. We noted that a few wineries were on that road and made plans to return in a day or two. We headed to another pub for dinner and recognized a group of two couples that had been dining where we were the night before. They nodded to us and we smiled at them.

We decided to go for a driver farther afield on Wednesday. We lunched at Beechworth, a town renowned for its bakery. However, because I'm a Coeliac I couldn’t eat there, but we found a cafe that had a GF frittata on the menu. We enjoyed browsing the many boutique shops and giftware shops and then enjoyed the drive home. We had booked in at the renowned Taste Restaurant and enjoyed our entree sitting at a table close to the front window. Who should walk in? The same group of four that we’d dined with the last two nights. We took a look at each other and started to laugh. “Hello again,’ we said. They stopped and talked to us for a while about where each of us was staying and what we’d been doing. It turned out they had also been to Beechworth that day for lunch and that they had lunch reservations at the same winery as us for the following day.

Thursday morning we did some wine tasting at Warrabilla Wines because we’d enjoyed drinking their Shiraz with our meal the night before. 

We left with a box of wine and then went on to All Saints for our lunch. We were enjoying our main meal when our new friends came in and it was like a party. We had so much fun talking all about our holiday week in Rutherglen and discovered that we were all leaving to go home the next day. I also found out that one of the couples owns the Newsagent that I’d been going to for about 20 years! So I expect I’ll be seeing them again. We did some tasting after lunch and bought another box of wine. Sam is feeling very happy at this point but I'd kept a keen eye on how many drinks I'd had,  so I drove after lunch.

Friday we left after breakfast for the drive home, stopping at Glenrowan to visit the Ned Kelly (Famous Aussie Bushranger) attractions. 

I found a lovely antique shop with lots of girly things for the Shabby Chic side of me to enjoy.

We stopped for lunch with my cousins who live an hour down the road toward Melbourne. It was lovely catching up with them, but we were happy to eventually get home to our own bed. I'd been totally spoiled and enjoyed all the happy memories of our Wedding and Honeymoon. I’m still basking in the glow of it all.

I'll be uploading a post on my blog of the wedding day tomorrow so check over there for photos of me in at my glamorous best and a journal of my wedding day.

Dora Bramden writes heart-melting, passionate romance.