Melbourne

January 29, 2013 - Landing in Melbourne

Wake up call didn't happen so it was hurry and get ready for the day.  You can get a lot done in 20 minutes.  We then headed for our "Walking Tour of Melbourne".    

We headed into city central and first saw this artsy support structure (an oval inside a rhombus concrete structure) with the highway penetrating through the oval as we entered the city.  

Then we saw our first arcade - an indoor mall that is really an alley that goes through to the next street with upscale stores.

The entrance had a clock with Gog and Magog standing at attention.  They chime the clock every hour.

There is also a China Town as they have s high Chinese population.  Many of the stores are decorated for the Chinese New Year - Feb 10 -Year of the Snake.

These trees have been "Yarn Bombed".  These were done in early December and have lasted over 2 months.  People come in the dark of night and knit these sleeves around the trees.   There were about 20 of them and all patterns and colors of the rainbow.

We crossed the bridge over the Yarrow River and watched the rowing teams below.  The Melbourne stadium for rugby, cricket, etc. is in the background.

Flinder's Train Station - clocks showing time for every train and also a major meeting place 

for everyone in the city.  Across the street is the Princess Hotel with a nude above the bar.  This was the meeting time for the 6:00 swill.  Men would get off work at 5:06 and head for the bar.  They had until 6:00, when the bar closed, to drink as much beer as they could.

Federation Square - this is the Australian Center for Moving Images.  We had a coffee and enjoyed some people watching.

"Eiffel Tower"  center for cultural.

You can take this tram and tour the city and enjoy a three course meal.  Good way to use the old trams.

University Building with a lovely fountain in front.

Platypusses 

Hotel Windsor

Princess Theater - Jersey Boys were playing

Upside down fountain

Eureka Tower - the tallest residental building in the southern hemisphere.  The funky-shaped blue glass building, with an impressive gold glass feature at the top, opened in May 2007 and is a very artsy skyscraper.  We will go to the skydeck when we come back.