Melbourne, Australia

Visiting Melbourne was like visiting one of the great European cities.  Large, modern, great transportation, museums, parks, pedestrian areas, markets, etc.  One day was not nearly enough to see it all but we made our best effort.  In fact, at the end of the day, we barely made it back to the boat on time.  I think we had 12 minutes to spare.

City Sights

One side of the city...

and the other.

War Memorial.













View of the city from the memorial.

Interesting advertisement for an interesting cause.

Floral Clock.  We've seen these all over the world now.  We have a picture of one in Geneva, Switzerland.  There was one in Napier, New Zealand, but it wasn't in bloom.

National Gallery of Victoria

We were really happy to visit a museum full of European art.  All of these paintings are from artists we've put in some of the Europe blog posts.  The paintings are pictures taken by us.




















Vetheuil, Claude Monet

Gasometers at Clichy, Paul Signac

Weeping Woman, Pablo Picasso

The Uphill Road, Paul Cezanne

Rembrandt (self portrait), Rembrandt

Portrait of a [Homely] Lady, Francisco Goya

Neat ceiling.

Hazel did this for a while, over and over, looking up at the ceiling then back at me.

Queen Victoria Market

This large outdoor (but covered) market is located on the north part of the downtown area.  Side note:  downtown is called Central Business District (CBD) in Australia and New Zealand, I have no idea why.  Mostly a food market consisting of both raw foods and prepared specialties, like ethnic delis.

Hazel posing for her senior portrait.

St. Kilda

We took the tram southeast along the coast to a town called St. Kilda.  We went here to see Luna Park, an old-fashioned amusement park, and a beach.

Entrance to Luna Park.

Palais Theater.  This was across the street from Luna Park.

Yep, Salt n' Pepa were playing that night.  We actually heard them rehearsing "Shoop" when we walked by.  "Here I go, here I go, here-I-goooo again."  And Eddie Izzard is a very funny British comedian, you all probably know him as the voice of Sir Miles Axelrod from Cars 2.

After playing at the beach.  We struggled to keep Hazel from running into the water.  We only let her wade in a little bit.