Day in Melbourne, Wednesday - December 18, 2013

WEDNESDAY – DECEMBER 18, 2013

BOTTOM LINE:

Played in Melbourne all day!

BACK STORY:

The first order of business was to return our beloved little white Hyundai to the Melbourne airport.  We spent time on Tuesday cleaning it out to look presentable.  It looked great for having had it for over a month. The only thing that we might get dinged for is the scraped hubcap on the front left side.  I just couldn’t see the curb.  Even Bruce joked when he drove the car for the first time.  He couldn’t see the front end of the car and gasped, “this is like driving a freaking wind shield!”

As we drove from our hotel down Melrose Ave, it became apparent that we were staying the in backyard of the airport!  Trying to find the rental car location was like driving through a, mouse maze.  The airport was under construction (which one isn’t?) with very few directional signs.  We finally pulled into the maintenance area for Europcar and they escorted us in another car to the return area. They couldn’t even give us verbal directions. Everything is computerized so the drop off with fast.

Melbourne has a great bus shuttle from the airport into the Southern Cross bus & train terminal. For $28 round-trip per person, we were on our way.

They are right!  Melbourne is the Australian capitol of ART!  We were amazed at that the freeways had art displays, the skyscrapers had art embellished on their exteriors, the bridges were artfully decorated, the parks were artful with fountains and foliage and even the city center had been transformed into a Christmas Village.  It was so fun to see the funky contemporary to the refined traditional.

 

Christmas Square in Melbourne

Santa's Mailbox

  

We found a $5pp city hop on, hop off bus with commentary that we could ride.  We took that from Federation Square (St. Paul’s Cathedral & the Visitor’s Center) and got off at the Melbourne Museum. 

St Paul's Cathedral

Federation Square

Bruce had read that there was a special James Bond/007 exhibit at the museum that he wanted to see.  Although I have only seen the last two movies, I found the exhibit to have a very interesting and extensive collection of memorabilia.  The brother and sister that own the collection have very strict rules for viewing which included NO photos. I could however have Bruce pose next to one of the Bond cars.

Bruce, "BONDING" with the car of James!

The rest of the museum was filled with natural history, the body & mind, the indigenous people of the area and science…all of which was interesting.  We spent three hours there alone and needed to catch another bus and be on our way. 

Next to the museum stood the grand Royal Exhibition Building. The courtyard and adjoining garden was crawling with recent graduates from the University of Melbourne. Graduation ceremonies had been held earlier. The majority of the graduates were of Asian or Indian descent.  The University is ranked 36^th in the world universities and education has become the second largest export for the country of Australia. 

Royal Exhibition Building

Royal Exhibition Hall

The bus picked us up in front of a quaint wrought iron clad building and we were off to see the rest of the sites. 

Historical building

 Interesting places included the Sports Precinct (Cricket Stadium, the rugby/football (soccer) stadium that has a retractable ceiling and the Australian Open tennis bldg.), Chinatown, Little Italy, a huge Ferris wheel do to open next week, Victoria Harbor, The Immigration Museum, the Aquarium, The Royal Botanic Gardens, the Shrine of Remembrance, Government buildings and numerous art galleries, theaters, gardens, shopping avenues and dining areas. 

Ferris Wheel

We were exhausted and decided to refuel at a classy food court overlooking the Yarra River.  Bruce and I agreed over dinner that we wished we had more time to spend in the city.  I guess it leaves us some things to do should we revisit Melbourne! 

River Dining

Love the contrast of old and new

As we made our way back to the bus terminal, we used a footbridge to cross the river.  It was decorated for Christmas with big red hearts and a huge artistic display of plastic mistletoe hanging from the top of the suspension cable.  As we crossed I noticed all kinds of safety locks hanging from the guardrails, latched with messages written on them. 

Foot bridge with bar underneath

Love locks

     

I later Googled the bridge phenomena. It turns out that when couples want to make their love and commitment known, they embellish a lock, take it to the bridge to hang in a locked position and toss the key into the river below. …love locks!

Apparently it is something in pop culture that is happening in cities all over the world.  Didn’t know it…now we do!

Upon returning to the hotel, we packed and hit the sack