Day 89 Melbourne

It was another difficult start this morning, with the kids a bit more tired and a bit more grumpy than yesterday. We have all really started to feel the effects of the past couple of weeks, and are extremely tired each day.

We did eventually get the kids ready to go out, have showers, put on dinner in the slow cooker, completed journals, had breakfast and made some lunch before heading off to Melbourne for another day out.  Unfortunately it was 10am before we even got out of the door.

When we got to Dandenong train station, all 400 parking spaces were taken, so we had to drive around a bit to find somewhere to park.  Having a 4WD has its advantages as I found a very steep muddy slope that I could back the Prado into.  I expected I would need 4WD to get out later, but no one else was game to park there.  At least I know where I can put the Prado tomorrow as well.

Into Melbourne we went, and we jumped onto the City Loop Tram, which had a brilliant commentary the last time I was on one.  No such thing this time, so we rode around the loop until we finally got off at La Trobe and Nicholson St for the Museum.

The Museum is no longer where it was when I was living in Melbourne, but has a new building behind the Exhibition Building.  The approach past the Exhibition Building is beautiful gardens with this fantastic sculpture in front of it.

Aside from the Mermaid and Merman, there are the cherubs on the second tier, and rings of Platypus around the second and third tiers spitting water into the air. 

It was starting to rain though so we made haste to get over to the new Melbourne Museum before we got a thorough soaking.

The Melbourne Museum is fantastic.  I can't think of another museum that is as actively hands on as this.  All of the exhibits are interactive, and the kids were having a ball being allowed to fiddle and touch and turn and play with all of the gadgets that were on display. 

By far Emma's favourite part was seeing Phar Lap...There's a horse in that bit, so Emma was in horsey heaven.

We went on to look at the rest of the history of Melbourne exhibit, and soaked up a lot of history about the development and early years of the city.  On the way through, we came across this life size coat of arms which both Lisa and I thought was pretty cool.

There was an old roller coaster car with video playing of the big dipper at Luna Park, horse drawn carriages and even a replica of terrace houses from the turn of last century that you could walk through. 

At one point, I found Ashley and Rowan watching a video clip of some guy talking about building his dream home in a suburb that had no roads, and very few facilities like shopping etc.  I stood behind watching, and finally found out that the suburb was East Keilor, and I could see the similarity in the houses and terrain around the area where I lived for 4 years.

SPOOKY

Emma and Rowan found this moon that they could jump over and I couldn't resist snapping the picture...They're so cute...when they aren't talking.

The Melbourne history exhibit led on to a very interesting area that was full of Human Biology, and also a large exhibit that was base around Psychology and Mental disorders.  There was a series of spy holes which asked have you ever had any of the following dreams?...Have a look and ask yourself the same question.

1.  Alone in an Exam...running late
2.  Naked in front of a crowd
3.  Falling
4.  Flying
5.  Being chased by a shadow or some other monster
6.  Losing your teeth or teeth falling out.

I was a bit shocked that I can recall dreaming about all of these things, which means apparently I am neurotic, and a bit crazy, but I know you will all defend me vigorously against such slander...Right?

We kept going further through the museum, and came across the next area which had Dinosaur skeletons, and a walk through the evolution of dinosaurs, and other creatures before that (Reptiles that were the predecessors of mammals).  There was also in this section the Insects and Marine fish.

I thought Ashley would love this area with a huge 10m preserved giant squid...That is a hell of a lot of calamari in anyone's book.  There were also sharks, and even deep see angler fish with their little light bulb in front of their face.  Interesting to note though that the male does not have a little light, but bites the female and lives off her blood whilst she hunts for food.

We stopped into the minerals and geology section and took the time to watch a fantastic 3D presentation on the formation of the Earth, and the way volcanoes are shaping the planet. 

It was starting to get on in the day, and we still wanted to have a look at the Vic Markets, so we skipped the final quarter of the museum and strolled off with two important missions.  The first was to find some Krispy Kreme Donuts...Check...Mission Accomplished, and the second was to get Lisa some new Ugg Boots.

We got to the Market at 1530, with a closing time of 1700, but everyone was mostly packed up when we arrived, so hooray we are going back tomorrow. 

We did manage to find some cool stuff whilst we were there, including a new hand bag for Lisa and a new wallet for myself.  Lisa and I also splurged out on new I-Phone covers, but if you have ever seen the choice that they have here, you would too.

After the markets we walked down to Elizabeth street and jumped on the trusty 57 tram which took us back to Flinders Street station. 

We walked through the subway, and made our way across the foot bridge to Southbank with the intention to go to the Eureka Sky Deck on the 88th floor of the tower.

Out the front is this awesome sculpture of bees living on the building.  It is very arty farty along Southbank, but it makes you want to go back.  Of all the places in Melbourne, I really like Southbank the best.

Anyway it was off to the Sky Deck for a panoramic look around Melbourne for a birds eye view.

Looking South towards the West Gate Bridge, and Port Phillip Bay.  Crown Casino is the oval shaped building right in the middle of the picture, with the Melbourne Exhibition Centre the big rectangular roof  just behind it.  Melbourne Aquarium is the funny looking building with the blue roof near the Yarra foreshore.

You can see where the railway turns the corner, and heads towards Southern Cross Station and Etihad just past the Aquarium.

On the other side of the building, there is the entire sporting precinct.  In this photo we can see the MCG, Rod Laver Arena in front of it.  The building on the right hand side is the new soccer stadium, although I am not sure of what that is called. 

If you look closely, in front of the soccer stadium is a heap of mud that used to be Olympic Park, and the V shaped building on the site is the new State Aquatic Centre.  I found that significant as I swam and dived states and nationals at the old building which is now just gone.  It was swallowed up by Federation Square and the public open space that is now there.  Note also the family oriented line of traffic running out of the city.

Here is the same idea, in two photos.

On the left is Flinders Street Station, St Pauls Cathedral and Federation Square.  On the right you can see the public open space leading down to the new foot bridge overpass to the MCG with the Federation Bells in the sandy bit smack in the centre of this photo.  The Yarra still looks upside down to me with the mud on the surface though.

We had to deal with a worse than usual level of disobedience, nagging and smarmy behaviour from one of our kids whilst up at Eureka 88, so wrangling them all back down to street level was a bit of a trick.  Eventually we made it and hustled them all down to Crown Casino to see The Flames.

Along the way we passed more of the Mali statues and were able to take more photos to put up today (see below.)

There is some fascinating art work along Southbank, and throughout Melbourne as a whole.  This is pretty cool though.  If you have seen it, you know what I mean, but if you haven't, then it is one of the must do's for a trip to Melbourne. 

I also highly recommend dinner at the Meat and Wine Co.

The flames are the largest display in the Southern Hemisphere according to Google, and you can feel the heat on a cold day from the Northern bank of the Yarra River.  You can scale the fireballs by the size of people standing below the tower...Pretty BIG!!!

The city is quite beautiful at dusk on a cool evening.  I love the way the sky has come out the deep royal blue as twilight disappears, and dusk takes hold in transition to night.

We found ourselves back on the train heading home, with tired feet and hungry bellies.  I was able to initiate the kids and wife with a potato cake from the track side vendor, which went down a treat with everybody.

I was even able to get my car out of the spot in the car park without using 4WD, so I'm parking there tomorrow as well.  Just out of interest, the Top Left Mali was painted by Mali herself.  We thought it was done by kindergarten too...At first.