Melbourne Day 2

After sleeping 10 hours we awoke at 5:30am. We’re officially on Australia time. Hurray. At sunrise we saw hot air balloons in the distance. We did our power walk through some of the city parks here. First Treasury Park, then Fitzroy Gardens, then we went across the river to Queen Victoria Park. The parks are beautiful. Like an oasis in the middle of all the buildings and streets.

Next we jumped on the tram and headed for St Kilda, a small town just outside of Melbourne on the water. We walked along the water and out onto a long pier that attaches to a rock breakwater where penquins live. Unfortunately the tour to see them is at night so they must be sleeping away during the day. We did see a bunch of old fisherman on the pier using gigantic poles with no reels to catch fish. They spoke English but you could hardly understand what they were saying because their accent was so thick. Not sure what kind of fish they were catching but I suspect it is quite a spectacle to see them haul them in.

Next we walked Acland Street which is filled with small cafes and bakeries and the specialty of that area is cakes and more cakes. Unbelieveable. Not the place you want to be when you’re trying to eat healthy. We found a fun deli and ate lunch at a sidewalk table. No cake for us.

We jumped on another tram and went back into the city center where we visited the national art gallery. Lots of great art: Egyptian, Rembrant, Ruebens, and Toscani to name a few. The highlight was the giant mosaic ceiling and then the white legos artwork that was being erected by school children. Check these pictures out.

After all of that we decided to get back to the hotel and chill out on the balcony. We made reservations at a little French resturant nearby. When we got to the address there was no French resturant. He was now an Italian restaurant called Ceconni’s.
Well it was delicious and the service was superb.

Tomorrow very early in the morning we fly to Adelaide.