As we said last post, our previous visit to Melbourne was in
2006 so quite a bit had changed since then, although many things still looked
familiar. The tram system is just as efficient and has actually been improved
so that the whole central area of the city is now a free-fare zone. This
started on January 1 this year as a way to make it easier for the tourists to
get around inside the city. That doesn't mean that the locals have to pay, but
if they are coming in from outside the free zone, or going out of the free
zone, they still have to swipe their 'myki' cards and pay the appropriate fare.
We actually didn't use the system this time. We took a
relatively short stroll around to Collins St. on Wednesday afternoon. Then on
Thursday morning we did what Bruce had always instructed - headed for the
highest viewpoint in the city. That it happens to be no more than a five-minute
walk from the hotel was just a bonus. The Eureka Tower was built in 2002 and,
at 88 floors, is still the highest building in the southern hemisphere (the
Burj Khalifa in Dubai doesn't count; it is still in the north). But apparently that will be changing too,
since there is now a plan to build a 108 storey skyscraper here in Melbourne.Here are some pictures of the view from up there:
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| From the outdoor viewing platform; hence the mesh |
After we left the Eureka Tower, we thought we'd check out
the Aquarium, just down the river a bit and on the other side. It turned out to
be a bit noisy since the kids were still out of school for the final day of
summer break, but eventually things quieted down and we could study the
exhibits in peace. Many fish and reptiles we could see here are only found in
the waters around Australia; maybe we'll be able to see some of them (not the
sharks, of course) when we visit the Great Barrier Reef later in the tour.
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| Yes, there is a diver vacuuming the rocks in the fish tank, and yes, there is a shark swimming by |
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| The seahorses hardly look real |
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| And of course there are the penguins. Probably the most popular display in the whole place. |
After leaving the aquarium we continued our stroll along the
riverfront, eventually passing the Crown Entertainment Complex. This is like
Caesar's Palace or the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas on steroids!
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| The main entrance foyer |
There is a
large casino inside, along with the designer clothing, watch and jewellery
shops, and along the promenade side there are numerous restaurants, including
Rockpool Bar & Grill by Neil Perry, who singlehandedly put Sydney's
restaurant scene on the map in the 1990s, and Nobu. Chef Nobu is the architect
of the menus at Silk Road on the Crystal ships, and a quick look at the menu
posted here showed us that many of the dishes we've had there are the same ones
he serves at his own restaurants.
We continued walking out toward the Docklands
and got as far as the Melbourne Convention Centre. If we'd gone much farther,
we would have ended up at the downtown outlet mall, so maybe Larry had an
ulterior motive for wanting to go back...On the way, we stopped and made a reservation
for Friday night at Rockpool. Photos to come.
Our last stop for the afternoon was the hotel pool and
sundeck area for a bit of R&R before the busy part of the trip really
begins.
Promptly at 6:00 everyone got together for the welcome
cocktail party and introductory meeting with our Tour Director, Georgina Day.
Even she pointed out that she felt destined to lead tours in Australia - just
look at her name: G'Day! Never mind that she's from Calgary, and her mother now
lives in Adelaide. We discovered from the guest list that, out of the full group
of 40 people, we were NOT the only Canadians. What's even funnier than that,
the only other Canadian couple live in Richmond Hill, at Bayview and 16th Ave,
no more than 10 minutes from us!!
Everyone else on the tour is from the US - north, south,
east and west, we've got the whole country pretty much covered. Most of the
people are around our age, a few older and some younger, but it looks like the
group will mesh quite well.
We had dinner in the hotel restaurant, Melba, and started to
get to know our fellow travelers. Georgina had given us a fairly early assembly
call for the morning, so we headed back to our room after dinner and made our
evening coffee and tea there before turning in.
This morning, Friday, looked just as nice as yesterday -
clear blue sky, a few clouds, and a reasonable temperature of about 21°C. This
is pretty nice considering that in the past few years the Australian Open
Tennis Tournament has been played in 30° plus weather, sometimes hitting 40!
After breakfast, we all gathered in the lobby where we met our walking tour
guides and broke down into smaller groups for our 90 minute trek around the
arcades and laneways of Melbourne.
We learned that Melbourne was actually established in the
1830s by two English men, one named Batman (emphasis on the first syllable, no
relation to Bruce Wayne) who traded goods with the aboriginals for bits of
land. Eventually they had enough land by the river to establish a settlement,
and the town was born. According to our tour guide, it was originally supposed
to be named Batmania but more reasonable heads prevailed and it was named
Melbourne after Lord Melbourne, the Prime Minister of England at the time.
There was quite a gold rush in this area, much bigger than the one in Alaska,
and it contributed to Melbourne becoming the richest city in the world in the
mid-1800s. It continues to be one of the main financial and business hubs of
Australia, along with Sydney.
Our walking tour took us through some of the smaller streets
and alleyways. Someone asked a guide about safety in the city, and she quipped
that there are news stories on TV about people falling off their bikes on the
way home from work since there is hardly ever anything more serious to report.
Melbourne hasn't been voted the most livable city in the world for a number of
years running for nothing.
Here are some photos of the shopping arcades:
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| This tea shop always has a lineup for afternoon tea. It was established in 1892 |
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| So many laneways have little restaurants and coffee shops in them. And many of them also have video surveillance to ensure everyone's security |
and the graffiti-covered alleyways (Where's Rick Mercer?
These alleys are just perfect for his weekly rants!):
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| These murals change practically every day. There is no restriction on painting, but there seems to be an unwritten law that no-one puts up anything obscene or intolerant |
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| One of the artists at work./ |
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| Nothing is safe from becoming a canvas! |
Once we finished our walking tour, we hopped on a tour bus
and were given a driving tour around for about 90 more minutes. We visited many
neighbourhoods of Melbourne, including the University area, the Italian section
and the part of the city devoted to sports. Considering that Melbourne has a
population of only about 4.5 million, second in size only to Sydney, it has a
huge sports following. Not only does it have the National Tennis Centre with 40
courts, there is the Melbourne Cricket Ground, a stadium holding 70,000 people,
and the main Arena, holding over 100,000 people, where they play Aussie Rules
Football. Apparently every match of every sport is practically sold out every
weekend! Oh, and we haven't yet mentioned horse racing. That's also huge here,
with 4 race courses within the city limits. The big thoroughbred race of the
year is the Melbourne Cup. Our bus driver told us that it is such a big deal
that there's a 4-day weekend around a 4 minute race!
Some of the neighbourhoods we drove through had been
established in the 1800s and the old cottages and some of the older buildings
are still around, and now also very expensive. As they are heritage buildings,
changing anything on the facade is not allowed, but the interiors have all been
upgraded and the amount of space inside is quite something. Too bad that most
of them are going for at least $1 million. Almost sounds like home. Here are
some of the houses we passed:
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| The wrought iron railings are made from pig iron that was used as ballast for the ships coming to Melbourne in the 1800s. |
Our bus ride ended at the Shrine of Remembrance, dedicated
to the people of the state of Victoria and all Australians who fought and died
during the First World War. It was originally dedicated on Remembrance Day
1919, but since then the memorial has been extended to commemorate people who
fought and died in all conflicts.
There is a sanctuary at the memorial that was designed
specifically for the November 11 service. The plaque in the centre of the room
is illuminated by the sun on that day every year, and precisely at 11:00 in the
morning, the sun's ray hits the word 'LOVE' in the inscription.
Multiple times every day there is a re-enactment of this
'light show' so people can see what it would be like. It is extremely moving to
watch; we can hardly imagine what it would look like to actually watch the
sun's ray move over the words on Remembrance Day. Here are a few other photos
of the Shrine:
Rather than taking the bus back, we decided to walk to the
hotel. It wasn't a long walk, and we had
a chance to stroll through part of the Royal Botanic Garden and along the
river.
One thing that is very noticeable on the water is the sculls
of the various rowing clubs. We had thought they were just university students,
but we discovered that rowing is bigger than just that (of course!). The club houses
for the university, the Melbourne Rowing Club and a number of grammar schools
are all along one section of the river.
This evening we had our dinner at Rockpool, and boy did it
live up to expectations. We had talked to one of the Aussies on our winery tour
about restaurants, and he gave it a high recommendation. He also said that we
needed to try the grass-fed beef since we would be more used to grain-fed beef
at home, and they do have two very different tastes. He was quite right! We
could practically cut the meat with a fork and it melted, as Bruce would say,
'like budda'. Of course, with a meal as special as that one, we couldn't resist
taking some pictures, so here they are:
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| Our table had a great view of the open kitchen. The meat is cooked over wood grills; we were close enough to 'feel the heat'! |
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| Monica's filet (or fillet) steak |
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| We even had room for some dessert. Lemon curd filled doughnuts. Mmmm |
So now we're back in the hotel, all packed up and ready to
fly to Uluru in the morning. Georgina explained that Tauck was again using a
private chartered plane instead of Quantas so we won't have to worry about
going through security, or liquid restrictions, or any of that. We're all
looking forward to the 3 hour flight.
