Melbourne Day 2

Michael:

Beverly and I went our separate ways again today.  She went on the tour I escorted yesterday, and I escorted an excursion called “Melbourne Past & Present.”  Things did not start off on a high note as the guide was quite disorganized.  I had to take charge and change the order of activities and the time spent at each.  Once this was done we had a good time starting at the Shrine of Remembrance.  We had visited here before and I didn’t go in but this is a magnificent tribute to all of those who fought for Melbourne (actually all of Victoria) in its various wars.  We also paid a very brief visit to the Botanical Gardens next door.

Our next stop was the Melbourne Museum where we had exactly one hour to sample a museum easily worth investing an entire day in.  We did get to tour the original Exposition Center, built in 1879.  This huge Center is now an “exhibit” and part of the museum.  The history of the place is amazing.  In 1888-89 it was home to the Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition which attracted two million visitors. What is amazing is that there were only one million people living in all of Australia at that time, and it took a good six weeks to get here from Europe.

We also got to briefly explore the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Center where we learned a bit about the 50,000-year-old culture of the Aboriginal people.  We were allowed to handle some of the actual objects they used in daily life such as eel traps and opossum fur coats.  The highlight of the museum, at least for me, was the chance to view “Phar Lap.”  Phar Lap was unquestionably the best thoroughbred horse in the world until his untimely, and some would say highly suspicious death around 1930.  Anyway, here he was, in all his glory.  OK, he was stuffed, but he was as real as he could be.  He was truly a super horse; his heart weighed 26.4 pounds whereas the average thoroughbred heart weighs only 17.6 pounds.

Our final stop was the 92-story tall Eureka Skydeck, the tallest apartment building in the world.  We took a 38 second ride up to the viewing platform on the 88^th floor.  The views were striking and the weather was good enough to get some awesome pictures.  We saw a lot of Port Philip Bay, the second largest bay in the world after the Bay of Bengal.  We could also see the Dandenong Mountains that I visited yesterday.  I returned to the boat with the full intention of taking the shuttle back into town for a final “walk about,” but since it was windy and threatening to rain I thought better of it and wrote this little note instead.

Beverly’s Turn:

One thing we don’t get on the ship is an accurate weather forecast for local conditions.  I sorta got it right yesterday, but today, hoo boy I froze this morning.  I went back up to the mountains to ride the Puffing Billy train again, only it was cold and raining.  This is an open sided train and I used my umbrella to keep the rain off my legs.  I thought about buying a sweatshirt in the gift shop before we left, but the prices were ridiculously high and the shirts weren’t even that nice.  We only had to suffer the ride for half hour before we got on the bus.  Crank up the heater, please!

The rest of the tour was as Michael described yesterday.  Wine tasting, lunch (no chocolate dessert like he had yesterday – rats), and then on to the wildlife sanctuary.  Fortunately, it stopped raining while we toured the park.  However, the mosquitoes were out in full force and we stopped to get sprayed down with “Off,” which I conveniently had in my backpack (courtesy of the ship).  We had a delightful tour, and yes Marilyn, this one was a good one.  I enjoyed seeing the animals in their natural surroundings and our guide was excellent.  The park was so beautiful that if I was one of the animals, I would never consider leaving there.  The highlight of the day was seeing not one, but two, of the elusive platypus.  FYI, the plural of platypus is platypus.

I will spend the rest of the night lying flat on my back.  The past two days have been quite busy; after toting a backpack and camera all day, riding on trains and buses, and walking I don’t know how many miles, it’s time to heed nature’s call to rest and recuperate.