Day two in Melbourne

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Second busy day and do I mean busy. After a lovely continental breakfast(skipped the Vegemite), we headed out in our coach, that is air conditioned bus. Did I tell you all about the driving here? Well, the down-unders (and that means both countries) drive on the leFt. Did not take my little brain long to get used to that, but...in Melbourne, in order to make a right turn, one moves to the extreme left hand of the road, waits for everyone going in the same direction to pass on the RIGHT, and then swings wide to make the turn. Really freaky! Oh, forgot to tell you one thing about yesterday. We walked across this pedestrian bridge which looked like metal railings with six strands of steel wire strung below. Each strand was covered in locks, up to a hundred or so a strand. The theme is Locks of Love. Multiple colors, sizes and shapes spanned the Bridge. So we start off the day at the Melbourne Gaol or jail, one of the first penitentiaries in AUS. Three stories high, the bottom two had rooms about 4x8, with walls maybe two feet thick and a three inch iron door with a food slot. There was no talkingallowed. Prisoners spent 23 hours a day locked in and 1 hour walking back and forth in a yard with walls between the prisoners. Ned Kelly, the famous AUS outlaw was hanged there. The actual gallows was inside the prison. Our guide told us the length of the rope used during a hanging depended on the prisoner's weight. Had to be long enough to snap neck or prisoner would suffer. Also the trap door smashed against the wall with a loud thud to frighten the prisoners more. From there we drove to the ANZAC (Australian New Zealand Army Corps) where there are exhibits from all the wars. At one we went to the top floor for a ceremony. When the shrine was built an aperture was cut into the wall so that the sun would stream across the word Love in the floor plaque at exactly 11:11 in commemoration of Armistice Day. It took 144 pages of calculations to accomplish this. There is a ceremony everyday however by further calculations. Unfortunately for the 11:11 ceremony daylight savings messEd them up and all new calculations had to be made. From there we toured the botanical gardens. Tonight we went to see the fairy penguins come back to their nests. I had to hit the hot tub for my feet theN. Forgot to take pedometer tonight but walked 13000 steps by 4Pm. Time to sleep, g'nught.

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Comments

[Carol]

day 2
Sounds like a grim day! Good idea to take your pedometer along. Would love to see the penguins! Sleep tight!