Day 13 Friday, March 21

Today began with a brief guided city tour of Melbourne.  The highlights included City Square, Fitzroy Gardens, and views of the Parliament House and the Shrine of Remembrance.

It is always startling to see traffic moving on the opposite side of the street from what we are used to in the States.

...busy city streets, lots of pedestrians...and see the guy at the far right of this photo?...with the flowing black robe and the "white wig"?..he is a barrister on his way to court!  The Australians call these guys "Penguins". 

The Queen Victoria Market is the oldest and the largest in Australia.  It covers many, many city blocks!

...with shops of every kind imaginable!

We saw several of these bike rental locations throughout the city.

 ...and some very interesting architecture...

This neighborhood reminded me of New Orleans...

Chinatown anyone???

...Melbourne's Parliament House...

...a beautiful city square/monument park...

..right in the middle of Melbourne's downtown area...

...stunning old cathedrals... 

...and Fitzroy Gardens, a lush colorful setting...

...not sure what these black flowers are but what a dramatic contrast to the red flowers!

BooBoo is always scampering about looking for mischief! 

...apparently BooBoo can't read....do not sit on the rocks!

BooBoo loves fountains!

...and my sister Donna loves flowers....

 

The Shrine of Remembrance pays tribute to all the veterans of foreign wars.

...an eternal flame....

Maybe I'm weird but I couldn't resist taking this picture of the sign that was posted over the women's toilets..... 

..with the large population of Asians that live here and travel here, I am assuming that they must use the toilet a little differently in their home country??

 

Our next adventure was to be served lunch aboard the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant.  We enjoyed a delicious four-course lunch served in an elegant setting aboard the first traveling tramcar restaurant in the world.

That's our tour director, Jeremy, in the foreground, trying to keep our group all together before we board the tramcar.

 ...here comes our "lunch wagon"...

                                      ...Nice!

Look at that appetizer....avocado salad w/salmon on top!

 What a special lunch with my sisters and friend!

 As we looked out our window during lunch, we saw many of Melbourne's landmarks.  I am not sure what these figures atop the square posts represent.... 

 Cool metal sculptures on this bridge...

 ...and what an interesting entrance into this amusement park!

...ahhhhh...Bruce and Vicki...the newlyweds!

Isn't that sweet.

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Tomorrow we leave Melbourne behind as we travel to Sydney, which I will cover in my next post.