Traveling with Michelle: Day 7: Melbourne, The Other City in Australia

Today we got to know Melbourne. We packed our bags and put them in the minivan, checked out of our apartment hotel and drove into the heart of the city. Our plane for Perth doesn't leave until 8:30 tonight. Here are some pictures of/from our hotel:

We parked near Fitzroy Gardens and then walked the rest of the day. Being a workday, parking was at a premium so we found a ramp to park in. Fitzroy gardens is interesting because, at first, it looks like an English park. Big elm and other trees, large areas of grass, fall leaves on the ground. Then, one notices pockets of tropical plants with interesting paths among them. The juxtaposition of the English with the jungle is a bit of a jolt. The placard about it said that the trees are to provide shade in the summer and to suppress dust from the surrounding streets. I thought it was surprising that they thought about air quality.

British park on one side, jungle on the other!

Joshua posing

In the middle of this is a miniature tudor village. It was a gift from the people of Lambeth, England. After World War Two, there were food shortages in England. People of Victoria (the province that Melbourne is in) evidently sent food to people in England. So the people of Lambeth gave them a model Tudor village as a thank you.

Near the Tudor Village is "The Fairies Tree" carved by Ola Cohn. It is very cute.

Also in the Fitzroy Gardens are two adorable little cottages. One is the Sinclair cottage for the horticulturist that planned the gardens and planted many of the trees. However, it was covered with scaffolding, so I couldn't even get a decent picture of it. The other is the Cooks' cottage. It belonged to the explorer, James Cook. Evidently, it is his family's cottage from England. They took it apart, brick by brick and sent it in barrels. It was then reassembled here in Melbourne.

Sinclair cottage covered in scaffolding

Cooks' Cottage

Stable end of Cooks' cottage

Also in the Fitzroy Gardens was a conservatory. They were replacing the steps at the front, but it was open through the back entrance. Very lush though small.

Front entrance

detail from the exterior

Kathi

Marian and Joshua

Back entrance

side

There was a placard about the possums at the park. They are native to Australia, but because there are no predators, they have overtaxed the parks resources and have overpopulated. The park has begun to put metal bands around some of the trees and have covered some of the trees with missing limbs, etc with metal as well to keep them from nesting in there.

Next, we moved on to the Treasury Gardens. There we found a tribute to President Kennedy; we're not quite sure what he did to deserve such an honor.

President Kennedy

Randy

Randy and I

The city of Melbourne provides free trams for the circle tour, number 35. It is a circle that goes around the downtown area. You can pick them up at any tram stop along the circle. So we took the tram to Carlton Gardens in front of Exhibition Hall. The Hall was built for the International Exposition in 1830. It housed the "technologies and achievements of the mechanised age." It was also used in the Centennial International Exposition in 1888. This Royal Exhibition Building is the only remaining "Palace of Industry" from a nineteenth century world's fair on it's original site. I asked the guard if I could look in the doorway at the building, but he would not allow me to take pictures. It was being set up for an event of some sort. It was beautiful!! I wish I had pictures of the interior.

Then we began walking around the city. We noticed that about 90% of the cafes in Melbourne serve Asian food. We stopped at one for lunch, the B & B'guette Cafe which turned out to have Vietnamese food. Then we stumbled upon Chinatown and wandered there for awhile.

We continued to wander and look in some shops. We looked in at the Opal museum and Joshua and I watched a short film about how opals are formed.

After this, we walked to the Eureka Tower; Joshua wanted to visit the observation level. It was fun to see everything and it turned out that our hotel was just a few blocks away!

The windows of the top 10 floors are coated with 24 carat gold

Addition of bees on the outside of the building--no explanations

Photos from the observation deck

We then looked for a place to have dessert (and waste time until we needed to leave for the airport). We found a narrrow street full of restaurants, but those either didn't have much of a selection or charged $8 for a doughnut or $6 for a mini-cupcake. Finally, we noticed a little alley labeled Centre Place on an arch above it. It looked a bit dodgy, but we walked up. It was filled with tiny cafes, counter spaces, and tiny shops. It led to a shopping center space with fairly upscale shops. The tiny alley had donuts for $2 each. After our dessert, we headed to our car and arrived at the airport with time to spare.