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Published: February 21st 2018
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Melbourne
Part of Queen Victoria Market (huge). 20/2/18 Another bucket list item today. We felt we needed to spend more time in Melbourne city centre so the C. O. organised a plan of attack and I was briefed with the main details. We trammed into the Crown Casino stop on the South Bank Of the Yarra River in central Melbourne. We then caught the hop on / hop off bus at a stop we would never have found but for a helpful man in the huge Convention Centre. There was no bus stop evident and the website did not give an exact location. Our experience of the hop on / hop off service, in Melbourne was the worse that we have encountered. The buses are old and would not pass U. K. emission tests and the bus stop map is inexact and the stops are difficult to find. Having said that, it got us around. The first stop was Victoria Market - yippee!! It is, however, the largest covered market in Australia and the C. O. was happy inspecting the goods. I excused myself to the old boys seats outside. Our next bus was about 20 minutes late but did get us to Parliament Square. We stopped
Melbourne
Melbourne museum. for lunch at a cafe and relaxed for a while. The C. O. was overtired as she had been following our progress on the bus map. After R & R we walked around and saw the parliamentary buildings, the cathedral and then deployed through Fitzroy Gardens which is a delightful park. In the middle of it was a model Tudor village. I have no idea what the Chinese tourists made of that. We came out of the park and flagged down another bus and rode to the terminus at Federation Square. From there we decided to walk to the Eureka Building on the South Bank. This was a bit of a challenge as the C. O.'s cartography reading reserves were low. We eventually arrived at the Eureka Building which is the highest building in Melbourne. We had tickets to go up to the "Skydeck" on the top floor. These tickets had been bought for us last Xmas by Charlotte and Ollie as they thought we would like to go. We rode quickly and smoothly to the top floor and got out on the observation floor that went right round the building. The views of Melbourne were stunning and we both
Melbourne
The Paliamentary building. took far to many photos but we were lucky in that it was a clear and sunny day.
There is another option available with a "Sky Deck" visit and that is a visit to "The Edge". This is a glass cube that is pushed out of the side of the building on the 88th (yes eighty eighth) floor to allow you to see all round. The C. O. thought long and hard about this option and came to the conclusion that I should "go over the top" and try it out. I later went into this cube and I have to say that it was pretty dramatic. You could not see out as the glass was opaque. You could feel you were being pushed out which was accompanied by sound effects of grinding machinery. When fully out, there was a "bang" and the opaque glass was suddenly clear and you could see all round and through the floor, down to the ground. After a few minutes, the glass cube came back in and I was released from it. When asked to report, to the C. O., I said there was nothing to it and she would enjoy it, but
Melbourne
Yep up there!! she decided that there was just not enough time.
Melbourne is a big city that boasts five world class arenas used for both sports events and entertainment. The centre is laid out in a grid pattern as most modern cities and the roads are quite wide and usually tree lined. The tram system is widely used as there is no underground railway but it is efficient and runs all through the night at weekends. Melbourne has a lot of Victorian buildings and houses that looked well preserved. It must be a bugger to paint all that wrought ironwork on those balconies. We got to see more of Melbourne today and liked what we saw.
Driving in Melbourne is a bit different for although they drive on the left, which we all know to be correct, they have developed a couple of different minor variations. One is that you are allowed to turn left even if the pedestrian crossing is inviting pedestrians to cross. It is still frowned upon to run them over. Another variation is the "Melbourne Hook" which is used at some junctions. This is where, if you want to turn right, you stay in the left
Melbourne
One of the views from the top. hand lane but pull forward. When the traffic is clear you can then turn right.
Charlotte and Ollie were meeting friends this evening so we went out to a local Italian restaurant and had some pasta and wine for a total of $51. Very good value we thought.
We had a very good day and ticked off another item on the bucket list.
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