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Feeling adventurous on Tuesday, we decided to take a trip into the city to have a look around and as Sue wanted to check out some of the gardens, we found ourselves parking next to the Carlton gardens to begin our day. We were greeted by a large group of school children, who were visiting the Melbourne Museum, a building which we hadn't seen before. It looked a bit out of place sitting next to the exhibition building, which still holds pride of place here with it's beautiful structure and architecture. Unfortunately due to a function been held there, no tours were been taken, but a peek from the doorway, did give us a small picture of the grandeur of the inside.
The gardens themselves had just been planted with their winter plants and so the garden beds were all neatly dugged and raked, with new plants just showing the first signs of new life. After the recent heavy rains of the weekend, the lawns and the garden beds looked fresh and with the water fountains going at full stream, it was no wonder that many people were using the seats within the gardens to relax. The gardens were completely
revamped a few years ago, with some alterations been made, with the major one being a 1.3 million litre water tank being installed under the garden itself. This water is now used for the water fountains and all the watering when required and is filled by the water from the ajoining streets running into it.
From the garden we made our way down some of the streets, admiring the lovely old buildings that have been wonderfully cared for and restored, but are still in use. Probably the old Windsor hotel was the outstanding one, giving the impression of grandeur and luxury, with the footman standing dressed in his attire, at the front door awaiting the arrival of his next guest. Just before the hotel stood the old Princess threatre, which going by the banner above the door, is still a main venue for live threatre. Across the road stood Parliament house, the Treasury buildings, and treasury garden. Athough there was some major repairs been undertaken to the steps of Parliament house, the grandeur of the building was still very visable. Around the corner, we were greeted by the magnificent structure of St Patricks Church. This very beautiful grey stoned
building, with it's very high towers and carefully maintained spires and decorative lace work, stood proudly amongst the modern day buildings that were surrounding it. The church was open we assumed for public viewing, but as puppy was tacking along we didn't venture in.
A quick look at the watch told us a parking ticket could be close at hand and so we returned to our vehicle and made our way along the street until we came upon our next garden visit, which was the Fitzroy gardens. Here a very kind gentleman gave us his parking ticket, which had not yet reached its expiry time, so we made good use of this. Within the gardens we again discovered beautifully maintained garden beds, recently planted, well established flower blocks, plus some added attractions, like Captain Cook's cottage, the Conservoratry, the Tudor Villiage Model, the Fairy tree and some new sculpture that was resembling an elephant and giraffe. Within the gardens, just like the Carlton ones, there were many wonderful old trees, that provided shelter and shade and seats to relax ones weary legs. In the middle of the garden was a stream, that ended up in a pool surrounded by
tropical plants and ferns, with water lillies covering the pool itself. Just as we were ending our visit, two tour coaches arrived with overseas visitors, who going by their approach were rather eager to view the gardens and make good use of their camera's.
It was our intention to visit the Botanical Gardens as well, but with peek hour fast approaching and the legs getting weary, we decided that perhaps it was best to head for home, before we became entangled in the peek hour crawl, which is best left alone if your not used to it. We had already experienced this in the middle of the rain storm of last week, not much fun.
It is becoming very clear to us that no matter where you go, city or country, there is always something of interest to keep you occupied, wishing that you had more time to spend looking around, but the beauty of the travelling lifestyle is you can always come back to see the things you have missed.
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