Day 17 - A Quick Tour of Melbourne

My day began as many of them begin now by having breakfast with my Airbnb host. This time it was a very nice lady named Rosemary who lives in Port Melbourne.  As I ate my breakfast of muesli and coffee Rosemary went out of her way to make sure I had everything I needed for my day in Melbourne....

I had to take my rental car back so she made sure I had the directions.  She gave me a tram pass and made sure I knew how to use it and where to catch the closest tram from the rental car agency.  She gave me a map of Melbourne and showed me where I should get off the tram and what I should see in my brief time in Melbourne.  Armed with everything, I finished yesterdays blog and headed out into the city.

My first stop was in center city Melbourne.  Like all other big cities on a Friday morning there was a lot of hustle and bustle and a lot of energy.  I made my way up and down the streets just checking things out for a while and stopped to have some lunch (sushi!).  After lunch I headed for an area called Federation Square.  This is the area in Melbourne on the riverfront that hosts a lot concerns and events.  It's also the area that has the sports complexes including the arenas where they host the Australian Open tennis tournament each Jan. Personally I'm not a huge tennis fan but I could not pass up the opportunity to stop and take some pictures for my tennis loving friends like Candy, Cathy and Michelle.  

After that I took a long walk through the  royal botanical gardens (Google).  They were really nice with a large variety of plants from all over the world.  I walked around the area some more and came across the Shrine of Remembrance (Google).  This monument was built as a memorial to the men and women of Victoria who served in World War I and is now a memorial to all Australians who have served in war.  I was impressive and very nicely done.

The top of the memorial was a great place to snap some photos of downtown Melbourne....

And that was my whirlwind tour of Melbourne. I am now sitting at an outdoor cafe at the Melbourne harbor having a Carlton Draught and using the cafe's wi-fi to post this blog before boarding the ferry for the overnight trip to Tasmania....

I have heard and read that they will not allow you to board if you are not on at least 45 minutes before they sail.  It's now 55 minutes before we sail so I guess I better say good bye for now.  See you in Tasmania!

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