Oh Melbourne

There are certain cities in the world that as you enter, you know you are in a special place and no matter how long your stay, you know it will not be long enough.  Melbourne is that type of city for K and I.  Barcelona, Venice, Paris, Prague (for me), London (for K) are those types of cities for us.

Melbourne (pronounced Mel-BUN) by Australians or Mal-BUN by locals) is the second largest city in Australia with just over 4 million people (Sydney being the largest - with about 4.3 million).  The entire country only has 23 million.  Given we have been to Adelaide (1+ million) and Melbourne (4+ million), that means we have already visited the home of about 1/5 of the people of Australia.  That tells you just how sparsely populated Australia is.

Melbourne is a big city with large skyscrapers, beautiful parks and open spaces (including the Yarra River that runs through the city), wonderful arts and cultural spaces, more restaurants and cafes than you can shake a stick at, and extremely friendly people (especially for a huge city).  And sports - they love their sports (more on that later as I report on our trip to an Aussie Rules football game).

Part of the city skyline.  The city is dissected by the Yarra River so there are actually two big skylines.  Above is the view looking north.  Here is the entire city from the Shrine of Remembrance hill (covered below).

On top of that, you have wine valleys, mountains, beach laden peninsulas, and islands that surround the city (don't forget the Great Ocean Road that I reported on earlier starts just to the southwest of Melbourne).  You could spend a couple of weeks in Melbourne and the surrounds and still feel you have much more to see/do.

We visited Melbourne over 4 nights and 3 days, but spent one full day on Phillip Island to the south (more on that in my next post).  Here are some of the sights we saw - taken over the entire time we were there.  While you may not know them, these are famous spots/buildings to most Australians and certainly Victorians (Melbourne is in the state of Victoria).

Federation Square at night and day.  Fed Square is considered the heart of the city.  It holds an art museum, cinema, outdoor stage, city visitor center and a few cafes.  It is the identifying space like Times Square for Melbournians.

Flinders Street Station - the main (and iconic) train station at the very center of town.  It sits opposite of Fed Square.

The tower atop the Performing Arts Centre at night.

The City Trams and our chief way around the city.

 Princess' Theatre

Hotel Windsor - famous for its "High Tea".  K wanted to attend, but I was against getting dressed up and paying $69 a person to sip some tea and eat cucumber sandwiches.  I have tried not to think about money or costs on this wonderful trip of ours (as my family knows, I can be a bit tight with money), but that was just too much for me to see sideways.  I hear K in the background saying - "it was more than tea and cucumber sandwiches!"  Whatever.

Victoria's Parliament House (Melbourne is the capital of the state of Victoria).  We took an excellent tour from a guide (Martin) that served out information on their government's meeting place and comedy equally well.

St. Patrick's Cathedral (lovely stain glass and woodwork inside too).  It is the tallest and largest church in Australia.  It was being completed at the same time that St. Patrick's Cathedral in NY was being completed.  A few archbishops (cardinals) of St. Patrick's have been rather influential in modern day Catholicism. 

St. Paul's Cathedral is the other big church in town.  This Anglican church is located on the same square as Federation Square and Flinders Station.  They don't allow pictures inside of the church without getting a photo license.  I guess God needs to pay the rent too.

Shrine of Remembrance - dedicated to WW I vets.  It sits aside the Domain (park).  Right next to it they have another memorial and eternal flame to those that died in WW II.  So the region has become a sort of war memorial for all ages.  It is one of the largest war memorials in all of Australia - and that is saying a lot since every town/city has one.  George Washington once said a nation is measured by how it treats and remembers its veterans.  I would say Australia measures well on this scale.

Degraves St - coffee lovers' dream - an entire lane of cafes.  According to one poll, Melbourne is #3 of coffee friendly cities in the world (Starbucks is a few blocks away to let you know where it sits in the minds of locals).  There are a lot of people-only tiny lanes that provide the city a real cozy feel even when in a huge city -similar to Venice or Paris in that way.

There are more sights and more pictures of each, but I will spare you the details.

As we have done in several of the cities we visited this trip, we went to the city's highest building for a bird's eye view of the place.  In Melbourne, the high point is the Eureka Tower.  It is the second tallest building in Australia.  Here is the tower from the ground.

Here are a few pictures of the city from atop the tower.

We went to a few of Melbourne's great museums.  First the National Gallery of Victoria.  They had a small but fine collection of many types of art from all over the world.  Most of the Australian/Victorian art was on display in the museum in Fed Square.  The building itself was very modern with a wonderful fountain/pool outside and 2+ story glass waterfall at the entry.

A few of my favorite pieces...

Picasso's Weeping Woman (this painting was stolen in 1986 and recovered in a locker in the train station)

Rodin's The Thinker study

And a Rothko.  We have a training room back home at work called the Rothko room.  I think I have seen about a dozen Rothko's across the world now.  I am not a real fan of Rothko, but it is always fun to tell my students that I have see the prints on the wall in real life.  This one adds to my collection of seen-Rothko originals.

You don't have to go to a museum to see art in Melbourne.  It is all over the city.  K and I love to see that in any city.  Art thrives in places of peace and prosperity and it tends to do poorly in places that have strife and disparity.  It is the canary-in-the-coal mine to tell you how well a city is doing.

Check out this video of the "Federation Bells" - both art and music mixed together.  You can go online to program the bells.  I have no idea who/what/why the bells started ringing as they did when I went by.

Hosier Lane is a street that graffiti artists have taken over.  That might sound bad, but it is now a city attraction.  The spray paint art in the city stretches from the fantastic to bazaar.

Like the Where's Waldo cartoons, Where's K?  Can you find her in Hosier Lane?

Even things like bridges are art.  We had a drink at the little bar at the bottom of the famous artsy "Footbridge." 

 

  

Of course, as with all cities in NZ and Australia, there are wonderful botanical gardens and parks.  Melbourne's Kings Domain is one of the best and biggest - if not the best.

As with other cities in Australia, the market (Queen Victoria Market) is wonderful.  Unlike Adelaide, it is bigger - much bigger - and you could buy just about anything there (produce, cheese, meat, baked goods, clothes, suitcases, kids' toys, hardware items,...).  I would do my shopping there every day if I lived in the city.

We are in Perth now - just arriving on the morning flight.  I am almost caught up with my posts.  I still need to tell you about our penguin visit on Phillip Island and our evening at the Aussie Rules Football game.  Look for those in my next couple of posts.  Our best to everyone back home.