Off to Melbourne

A few months ago, I happened on an ad for an art exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria and I said to Murray that we should go see this. (More about the exhibit in a future post.) He said OK!, so today we flew from the Gold Coast Airport to Melbourne.

To get from the Melbourne airport into downtown, we book tickets on the Sky Bus, which takes us to the Southern Cross Train Station right downtown. The queue for the first bus gets cut off right in front of us, so we have to wait for the next one. A bonus actually, as a double decker bus pulls up so we have our choice of seats and, of course, pick the ones right in front on the top level. We play tourist and sight see on the 30 minute ride into the city. To our dismay the view was mostly of the freeway. 4 lanes wide in both directions for those that might care.

As we walk to our hotel, the Novotel Central, we notice that colour is used as an accent on buildings and there is a definite arty vibe here. The buildings are tall so the streets feel like canyons. The sky is blue but we are in the shade most of the time.

Melbourne, Australia
St Patrick’s Cathedral

Once organized, we head out on our first exploration. We try riding the free tram – get off after two stops as it is so crowded it is silly. We are standing shoulder to shoulder. With our heads above window level we can’t see what we pass. This is most of the reason for getting on the tram. Best to cut our losses. Using our usual mode of transport we walk to St Patrick’s Cathedral, an impressive church built about 1870, and then through Fitzroy Gardens, a large park also dating from the mid 1800’s.The trees are enormous. It is quite obvious they have been around for almost 200 years.

Melbourne, Australia
Fitzroy Gardens
Melbourne, Australia
Fitzroy Gardens

We meander through Chinatown and the shopping district before stopping for an early supper of Mexican food on Hardware Lane, a two block long lane filled with restaurants and bars. It is close to the hotel so we will return there for dinner in the next few days.

Melbourne, Australia
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