Trip Downunder - Day 6

FRIDAY 20 MAY 2011
We left Knox City early on Friday morning and headed onto the Highway to visit the world 2nd most “Livable” city in the world.. i.e. Melbourne itself.
Our first view of the City was after we came out of a Long tunnel, and in front of us was the most amazing stadium with the weirdest architecture ever...

After carefully negotiating all the roads and once in the city, being very careful of all the trams, we finally made our way to the Crown Plaza which is nestled along the banks of the Yarra River.
Wow, what an amazing hotel. So nice to have your car valet take your vehicle away and park it, and the concierge every so worried about your every need. Our room overlooks the Yarra River banks and has a beautiful view of the outer side of Melbourne.

We instantly dropped our bags off in the room and after a quick drink in the Hotel Pub (have to try out the local pub), we hit the City. Melbourne City is one of the last cities that uses Trams and the reason for this is that they have very wide streets. Everyone has to give way for the intense network of trams that run up and down the city all day and all night long. There is a City Circle Tram, which is free of charge and you can just hop on / off at the stops along the way. It takes you around the outside edge of the centre of the city, so is perfect for all the local tourists. Believe me.. there are MILLIONS of tourists here, everyone is either dragging a bag behind them or taking photos or looking at maps. They are really so organised here though. I have never seen anything like it. You have maps everywhere and pamphlets with maps free all over the city, so you really cannot get lost.

There is so much to do in the city, it is mind boggling. So we headed for our first stop which was the EUREKA TOWER.. Eureka Tower has the highest SKY PLATFORM in the Southern Hemisphere (88 storeys high).. of course, being real tourist, we had to go up, walk around, go on the platform (and lie on our tummies looking down at the earth below.. WOW).. and get a photo taken ! !!! LOL Was amazing to see the views from up the top (took 2 cameras with so some photo’s I can only download later)...

You can see ALL around Melbourne.. it is really the most amazing city.. mixing old with new so easily, you don’t even notice it. The old St Peters and Pauls Cathedrals are huge and dominate the skyline, but blend in so well with the Skyscrapers around them. The city has every kind of transportation you can think of, from Trams (old and new), to a super underground subsway train system, to helicopters, gondola’s on the river, boat cruises, helicopters in the City AND horse and carriage rides.. even saw a Steam Train !
On the way back from the Sky Deck we stopped at the old St. Peters Cathedral. This is open to the public and have services daily. The stained glass windows are too beautiful and the overall calmness that surrounds the Cathedral is beautiful. Directly opposite the Cathedral, you can see the diversity of the City in the architecture of Federation Square across it and the Flinders Street Station on the other corner. What a mix of old and new.. amazing

We then headed North to the Melbourne Museum where they have the TUTHANKAMUN exhibition. We couldn’t get in immediately so took a nice stroll around the Museum itself.. which is beautiful and has dinosaur skeletons (never seen those before.. they are HUGE)... when the time came, we headed downstairs for the KING TUT exhibition. These were items taken from his Tomb and are all original items specially brought from Egypt. It was extremely busy and overcrowded (and they let us in in groups... was very expensive too), but for the experience, it was awesome.. to see the actual jewellery he wore, and the staff he used.. was amazing.

We caught the City Circle Tram back and found a local Steakhouse “RARE” to go to for dinner. Was a lovely restaurant.

On the walk back, you cannot even begin to describe the “vibe” of the city.. it pumps all the time. It is clean, tidy, well kept and everyone is busy with their own thing. It is super efficient. People everywhere. Lots of Asians around. No Africans to speak of. People from all walks of life are here and it is amazing to see such diversity. The girls here are super sexy and all were skinny jeans and UTTS (sheep skin boots) during the day, and at night EVERY Girl under 40 wears black short short mini skirts with either high heel shoes or boots.. The dresses are all very tight and very skimpy. Neville is getting more eye candy than he can handle at the moment.

PS: In between the main streets are “Lanes”.. these are like Alley Ways, but are well kept and neat. Some of these are works of art and are spraypainted by the local graffiti artists. You cannot believe how amazingly talented they are. No such thing as dingy alley ways for this city..