Oct 1, Monday

Oct 1, Monday

Took the metro downtown and from Federation Square took the Free City Tram to get to the Melbourne Museum.

 The old tram arrives

 and I start my ride around downtown Melbourne

 I got off at the Carlton Gardens and walked up to 

  the Royal Exhibition Bldg
Just on the other side was the Museum of Melbourne

 with lots of dinosaur skeletons

 and the natural history portion was amazing.  At the bottom of this photo you can see people using a huge interactive computer screen.  It showed the same animal displays as above; you simply touched the animal you wanted info on and it appeared.

 Welcome Nugget, 1858, found by a party of Cornish miners, 2218 ounces (63 kg)

Australia's Coat of Arms   with lifesize red kangaroo and emu.

From there I walked down Nicholson Street toward the parliament buildings, but

 turned into Parliament Gardens first

 And then continued on to St. Patrick’s Cathedral with its beautiful gardens

I cut across to Fitzroy Gardens

 and loved the brickwork adorned with children's messages

 Fitzroy Gardens

The Conservatory

 inside the conservatory



 
 Walked up to the adjoining Treasury Gardens



and back on to Spring Street near the Parliament Building

 and stately old hotels

 The State Parliament Building
I really got lucky because just as I snapped this picture, the Free City Tram arrived, so I jumped on and rode back to Federation Park.

Old Forum Cinema building with its elaborate architectural details

 Federation Square

It was about 4:30 by then and breakfast was long gone so I selected on of the open air restaurant to have a nice meal.   

First a coffee to warm up, then some nice pasta and prawns with a glass of Chardonnay.

 
The sun was getting low when I crossed the street to get back to the metro / train station and return to Brighton Beach.

I wonder how many kilometers I walked today?

Sept 30, Sunday

Sept 30, Sunday

My first day visiting Melbourne.  I’m still not feeling 100% but I really need to get out there and visit the city.  It was sprinkling when I left the hotel, but I made my way to the “Middle Brighton” metro station, about a 10 minute walk away from the hotel, and used my metro card for the first time.  I did not have a metro map, but had written down the names of the stations that would take me downtown.  Richmond was the stop where I needed to get off since that was the stop that appeared to be near Flinders Street and the Tourist Information Centre.   Got there, got off the train, swiped the card to show I had exited the system and went to the information counter to find out which direction to take to get to the Tourist Information Centre.  WRONG STOP !  The guy at the desk explained that I needed to get to the Flinders Station and pointed me in the right direction to get to the corresponding train track.  Swipe the card to get back into the station, make my way to the appropriate track, wait for the train, get on the train.  It is doing what is called a “City Loop” but for some reason instead of heading for Flinders (which would be the first stop of the 5 stops on the City Loop) it goes in a counter clockwise pattern.  Instead of a 2 minute metro ride to get to Flinders, it was a 10 minute ride. 

OK, I got there anyway so no big deal.  When I walked out of the Flinders Station I spotted the Tourist Information Centre just across the street and made a bee-line to get there.  I enquired about the Free Shuttle and where I could take it. 

Turns out it was just across the street in front of St Paul’s Cathedral. As I made my way out of the TIC I saw the bus pull up across the street… and of course the light was red. But luck was with me and the bus waited until everyone had crossed the street. I found the one unoccupied seat on the bus and sat down next to an elderly lady who was out for they day, taking advantage of the free bus to get to the botanical gardens for lunch. She was originally from England and still had her British accent; no hint of an Aussie accent here. She was very interesting and gave me all sorts of advice on what to see in Melbourne. 


 Eureka Tower in the South Yarra District

 Gates to China Town

 Intersting art work in one of the plazas

 Downtown streets of Melbourne with electric trams

 Crossing the Yarra River

More sculptures and street art work.  Eureka Tower is the tallest building in Melbourne.

 Crossing the Yarra River again, this time on the St. Kilda Road Bridge
I finished the loop after 1 ½ hours and got off again at Federation Square and decided to go into St Paul's

 St. Paul's Cathedral


The sun had come out, so instead of going to the Museum, I decided to walk down by the river and cross to Southbank, the area where I had met Melissa the night before.

 Flinders Street Station in Federation Square

 Crossing the river on one of the pedestrian bridges

Great architecture for this bridge !  Plus spectacular views of the downtown

I decided to go to the Eureka Tower and go up to the Skydeck on the 88^th floor to see the views.

 From the base of Eureka Tower

 Views of Melbourne from the 88th floor of Eureka Tower

 
 From this side you can see the sports complex across the river; on this side are the parks:  Alexandra & Victoria Gardens as well as the Music Bowl.

 The Botanic Gardens and Government House

 Federation Square across the River

 St. Paul's Cathedral

The Yarra River.  The tiny triangular building on the other side of the river is actually the aquarium.  From this height it looks tiny.  It is actually quite large.

From there I continued my walk along the riverfront

 Horse drawn carriages are available for rides

 It was an incredibly beautiful day

 And made my way to the Aquarium

 Emperor penguins wobbling around

 Amazing fish and corals

 Jelly fish

 Graceful stingrays

And swordfish rays

It was 4:30 by the time I came out of the Aquarium and I decided I would simply walk back up Flinders Street to the metro station and return to the hotel.  

Came across these totem poles along the way.  Totem Poles ! ! !

 Some of the tree lined Melbourne downtown streets
I picked up a metro schedule for the line to Brighton and returned to the platform that would take me to Richmond station so that I could switch to the Brighton line.I was fully expecting the train to now go directly from Flinders to Richmond, but for some strange reason the train was now running clockwise and I did the 5-stop city loop in reverse before returning to Richmond station. 

 The Richmond Metro Train station

 The soccer stadium.  Oops, No, make that their "foot" ball stadium

 The metro trains

 My train arrives

While I was waiting for the train to Brighton at the Richmond Station I checked out the train schedule I had picked up to check out the times and see how long I would have to wait for the connecting train. Why was Flinders Station showing as the other end of the Brighton Line? I asked a young lady sitting waiting for the same train if the Brighton Line train actually went all the way to Flinders and she confirmed that it did. DAH ! Oh well, I guess there are tourist detours on metro lines as well. When I got off the train at Middle Brighton I decided to look for a pharmacy to try to get some rehydration drinks. Found a pharmacy, but by this time it was closed; it is Sunday today and many shops were closed. I made a mental note to stop in tomorrow morning on my way into the city.