Melbourne

Sunday 1st March – Melbourne

This is a city built on Parisian lines, well tram lines anyway. The roads are broad with the trams running in the centre, and many Victorian and later facades have been retained even though a lot of skyscraper building has occurred.

Walked across the Yarra river bridge to the Sunday art market at the arts complex. Hundreds of vendors selling artistically designed trinkets. One man had found a use for silver plated teapots by using them as the upper parts of wind-chimes with various cutlery suspended beneath.

Then caught the free City Circle Tram to Victoria Market. Old wooden trams run frequently both ways around the city centre with recorded commentary describing where you are. At the huge covered market we bought salad vegetables, then caught the tram again to complete a circuitous journey.

In the afternoon we strolled around the Botanic Gardens. Not a patch on Sydney's mostly due to lack of water. It was interesting that plants were very distressed and dying even in the part of the grounds devoted to arid conditions. Really only the cacti were happy.

The weather was overcast all day, and slightly chilly.

Monday 2nd March

Sunny today. Walked to Melbourne museum which is a very modern construction full of interactive displays, including a walk-through forest complete with fish and birds.
Took the tram to docklands for coffee, the regeneration is large scale but seems underpopulated.
Back to the apartment for lunch, then a trip to a shopping mall to see a cliock that plays 'Waltzing Matilda' every hour. Turned out to be made by Seiko who have a strange Japanese idea of what the unofficial Australian anthem should sound like! Completed the day with a beer in a bar on the banks of the Yarra.

Melbourne on a weekday is definitely busier than on a Sunday, but not as busy as Sydney, although there does seem to be more construction going on.