Exploring the city

Had an hour in school with Dee this morning, good to know that no matter what side of the pond you're on all Primary school classes start with saying good morning, all staff rooms have roughly the same chairs, kids lose their planners and house points are awarded!

Caught the train into the city and stopped into Bunyip tours to see when I could get on the neighbours tour - "tomorrow? Fab!". So I had the rest of the day to mooch.

STopped at the amazingly well stocked, laid out and staffed Federation Square Tourist Information office. Don't be fooled by the empty looking glass room - the stuff is all downstairs - a theme I have found common in Melbourne, perhaps a worrying one! Picked up many leaflets and brochures, then put most back. Having scoured my Lonely Planet, and taken advice form Andrew, Dee and a few others I had a fair idea of what I wanted to do so decided to focus on that.

Decided on a few walking tours, stopping off to places on the way round. There's also a free - that;s right FREE - tourist bus service around the city which includes a brief but informative audio commentary on the way round. Also there's the brown city loop tram which is also FREE. Seriously, if you want a city that's very welcoming AND provides excellently for it's visitors with so many free and QUALITY attractions - this is the place to come!

Headed for Little Italy and Lygon Street first. Finally settled on Pappa Gino's and had a mound of pasta with a glass of vino and a coke for a respectable $20, then, fully stuffed headed over to the Victoria Markets. They were shutting up as I arrived (hopefully get to see it in full swing another day) but I could still see the scale of the thing! Walked back to Flinders Street and along to Fed Sq again to start my walk.

This walk took me South of the river through King's Domain and around the Botanic Gardens (again - all FREE). This included seeing the Melbourne Performing Arts Centre with it's Eiffel Tower-esque spire. Going inside the Shrine of Remembrance and witnessing a re-enactment of the 11/11 ceremony is oddly moving. Every year on remembrance day at 11:11am the sun shines through two tiny holes in the roof and a ray of light moves across the word 'LOVE' on the memorial stone. To demonstrate this on the hour and the half hour all year they play the last post and a small moving light creates the same ray. Having walked through the rest of the building and read the names outside on the memorials it was a somber moment even with only one other person there.
To break out of this reverie if you head out on the balcony you get the most amazing view of the city skyline...did I mention this is free? After this you walk through the Botanic Gardens, which must be packed in their summer time, but were still great to walk round and have lots to offer at this time of year. It was getting dark by the time I was nearing the end and the 'Tan' (Melbourne's answer to Hyde Park's Horse track) was beginning to fill up with runners - really, they do like their running here, I felt a bit guilty strolling along! I also managed to catch sight of a possum in a tree whilst walking back through the park. I was trying to be quiet - until I took a flash photo by mistake and it didn't even flinch!
I went back up to see one of the things I had passed on the way down - the Melbourne Bowl. It's an outdoor Concert venue with a permanent concrete stage and massive awning sheltering hundreds (if not thousands) of fold down chairs, right in the middle of the park. The acoustics and spectacle of seeing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra play there must be electric. But what I found more striking was - there were no big fences, no really obvious security - and yet, there was no visible vandalism, no hordes of teenagers loafing around with 'nowt to do. It really seemed like something the whole city was proud of and no one wanted to spoil it.