After all the nature and small town time, it was nice to get into a big, bustling city, albeit a very clean and green one. We drove into town and met Ryno, who we got connected to through Elya and Ryan Moore (see Krakow, Budapest, and Rome). The Rynocerous is a super-friendly, midwestern (from Wisconsin), iron man, ex-pat who open up his home to us and made the weeklong stay incredible. He showed us around all of Melbourne and took us to some great bars and restaurants. We shared many an interesting and lively conversation over a beer. We really hope to stay in touch and meet again back in Australia, in the States, or anywhere else for that matter.
Home base was in a neighborhood called Richmond, which is to the East of the CBD (Central Business District aka Downtown for the Americans). It is right across from the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Gardens, or The G for those into brevity), which is a large area of sports complexes that include the Cricket, Soccer, Aussie Football, Basketball, Netball (apparently the dumbest sport ever invented) and Tennis stadiums. There is also the Melbourne Cup, which is the biggest horse race, and the race is a state holiday. We need to petition to have the Super Bowl played on Monday and declared a national holiday.
In the heart of the city is Federation Square with buildings with this crazy cubist-like design. There is a big screen where they play major sporting events. It happened that in our time in Australia there was The Ashes, which is the test match between England and Australia. Vince tried to learn as much about cricket as possible, but it is still confusing. The greatest takeaway is that it is a lot like baseball, lots of stats, intricate strategy, and extremely slow. To the left is St. Peter’s Cathedral. Here is a picture of the interior:
We walked through the Fitzroy Garden, one of the almost endless stretch of parks and gardens in Melbourne. This park, like all the others, is in incredible condition. Some of the more notable features in the park are a miniature town of Tudor cottages, the Fairy Tree that is decorated with fairies and other random things, Captain Cook’s cottage (pictured above), and a Conservatory (pictured below).
Ryno’s friend Liz joined us and we really enjoyed getting to know her over or stay. She is a fellow triathlete/iron woman, and is really silly with a great sense of humor. We passed by this slow flowing water wall in the middle of the city, along with the following bronze dog-like creature statue.
After getting some delicious gelato (it was 108 that day!) in the Carlton district, we passed by the Melbourne Museum and the pictured Royal Exhibition Building built in 1880.
We spent New Year’s Eve on the banks of the Yarra River that winds through the city. We met up with another of Elya and Ryan’s friends, Anetta and Roger, both really awesome people. The banks were a cool scene with good energy. The fireworks show was very interesting with fireworks being set off from the tops of the skyscrapers, definitely never seen anything like it. However, Americans know how to do fireworks right: bigger, longer, and better.
Ryno and Liz took us out to the Yarra Valley, a beautiful landscape of mountains and vineyards. After a delicious breakfast in a town called Healesville we visited a couple wineries including Yering Station, which is the oldest winery in Australia founded in 1859.
The Botanic Gardens (or the Tan since Aussies shorten everything) is amazing. There are series of different gardens, open spaces, ponds, and pavilions. They also setup a large screen to show movies under the stars, but at $20 a ticket, we passed.
This is the MCG, the cricket stadium, which also houses the Sports Museum. Right near it is Rod Laver stadium and a bunch of tennis court that they were getting ready for the upcoming Australian Open.
Flinders Street Station is the main station, along with the newer Southern Cross station, of the CBD. Public transportation in Melbourne is excellent with the various trains and trams that they have crisscrossing the city. From Richmond it was a 10 minute trip to Flinders.
We walked around Southbank, a nice area of shops and restaurants along the southern bank of the Yarra River.
The War Memorial is an imposing looking building with some great exhibits and memorials. We climbed the top and got some great views back onto the city.
We traveled to the top of the Eureka Tower, which they claim to be the tallest viewing platform in the Southern hemisphere (we have since heard some conflicting claims). One cool feature (of course on our budget we didn’t do it) is something called The Edge, which is a glass cube to pushes out from the side of the building, and the glass floor cracks while unsuspecting people are in it. We did however get these bird’s eye views:
This is looking south out to the ocean and Port Melbourne.
A view of the CBD.
The MCG. You can almost make out Ryno’s place right behind the Soccer Stadium on the very right.
Anetta and Roger invited us over to their place for dinner out in Port Melbourne, which is a nice stretch along the coast. We got there a little earlier and walked along the beach. In the distance on the right you can see the Spirit of Tasmania at port. It is the ferry that takes you to Tasmania, which is apparently amazing, but we will have to do it another trip. Anetta cooked up a fantastic lasagna and we had a great time chatting with them and their friends.
We visited Victoria Market, a large area of indoors and covered markets selling everything from meat, produce, and fresh food to jewelry, clothing, and Uggs. Megan behaved herself and only bought an inexpensive wooden ring.
We took a tour of the Melbourne Goal, an old prison where a lot of their famous prisoners were held and hung, including the infamous Ned Kelly. We learned all about the history of the prison and daily life and stories of the prisoners. We spent a lot more time there than we thought we would, just so many cool stories and interesting exhibits.
On the second floor there is the gallows where from a large beam a noose hangs and below it is a trap door that opens with a big lever. The prisoner and the executioner spend the night on opposite ends of the gallows the night before the execution. Ned Kelly was hung here and his supposedly famous last words were “Such is life”.
Also included on the Goal tour was a reenactment of the Ned Kelly Trial played by audience members. Vince played the part of a police officer that gave testimony against Ned Kelly.
We also got a tour of the Watch House, a holding cell where people are held for hours to 30 days. It was still in use up until the late 90’s, when they switched to more local prescient holding cells. Males and females were separated by the warden and then were locked up into cells. We were shortly let out and shown the tiny exercise yard and a cool padded cell.
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