The hustle & bustle of Melbourne

Hosting 5M+ people, Melbourne is the largest city we've visited in Australia.  It is an eclectic mishmash of old and new filled with ample amounts of refurbishment as well as new construction.  We counted no fewer than a dozen high rise cranes on the sky line of the central business district and found more outside of downtown proper.

New buildings on the horizon

At it's core, Melbourne is old, founded in 1835 and serves as the capital for the state of Victoria.  Flinder's Station is a magnificent example of Melbourne's architecture.  You will note that there are cables crisscrossing the junction.  Trams and trains navigate the streets alongside cars, bicycles and pedestrians.  Melbourne boasts to have the oldest tram system in all of Australia.

Flinder's Station is Australia's oldest rail station

Driving in this town is not for the faint of heart. Add big city traffic, the array of vehicle types plus driving on the left hand side of the road and you can just say EEKKK!

Trains, trams, bicycles and cars share the same street.

You will see that some of the buildings are covered in clouds.  On our first full day in Melbourne, temperatures hit 111, on the second day, it was 66 and raining.  We welcomed the moisture even with the cooler temps as it helps slow the bush fires.  Melbourne proper hasn't had fires close to it.  However, east of here is Gippsland which is where the mega fires have been raging and for the most part where the pictures on the news are taken.  Prior to our arrival, due to the prevailing winds, Melbourne had several days of very high smoke pollution and was considered a health hazard.

The Shrine of Remembrance is an enormous monument dedicated to Aussie soldiers from all of the wars.  

The Queen Victoria Market was one of the most impressive open air fresh food markets we have ever seen.  Opened in 1860, it covers 17 acres and offers row upon row of absolutely any type of food you could want.  Seafood/meat, produce, dairy, eggs, and bakery along with nearly every type of ethnic food type you can imagine was available.  It was a feast for all of the senses and the prices were competitive.  If we lived here, this would be our go to market for everything!

 Melbourne has many lovely historic buildings sprinkled around the city.  Almost all of them seemed to be undergoing some type of restoration.  The Parliament building below housed the federation government until Canberra became the capital city of Australia in 1911.  It was being renovated with a schedule of 13 years for completion.

Notice  - there are no barriers in front of the government buildings here.

The Princess Theatre (below) dates back to 1854 and is the oldest continuously used entertainment venue on the mainland of Australia.  Currently, it is playing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a very long  play that requires you to attend part 1 and part 2 on sequential evenings!

Melbourne like every Aussie city is filled with parks and walking trails.  Our apartment was next to the Royal Park which covers 450 acres and provided so many lovely views of the cityscape. 

Melbourne truly has something for everyone.  Museums, theatre, live music plus massive sporting events like the Australian Open.  We weren't able to get tickets to the tournament but it was fun being in the same place during this iconic event.  In addition, the food scene in Melbourne is epic.  Notable new items we tried include delicious Greek bread braid spirals that were stuffed with feta, spinach and lamb from one of the market bakeries plus a spicy pig intestine soup at one of the Vietnamese cafes.  Both were delish!  This is a town you could spend months in and still not sample all of the cuisines.

But our time in the city is up and tomorrow we head for Tasmania which is another state of Australia that happens to be a very large island.  We will be there for the next several weeks looking to find some of Tasmania's most famous animals such as the Tasmanian Devil and the long nosed Pootoroo.  Much of this island is wild and sparsely populated, so we'll be off the grid again meaning limited internet and cell.

We'll return to blogging as soon as we have a signal.  Until then......Cheers Mate!

Cheryl & Dan