I began Saturday by walking from my hotel in South Yarra towards central Melbourne. I walked along St. Kilda Road (one of the main arteries heading into the city) and came upon a park with an interesting building that turned out to be the WWII Shrine of Remembrance.
By pure chance I came across a nearby stop for the official Melbourne tourist shuttle, which in addition to providing a quick ride into the core of the city also allowed for a full 1.5 hour tour of the city's main sights. The shuttle is free of charge and you are able to hop on / off at any point. Given that I had time on my side, I decided to take the full tour figuring that it would provide a very nice introduction to the city before I went off to explore it on my own.
The tour did just that and the highlights were Federation Square, Melbourne Cricket Grounds, the Carlton Gardens, Lygon Street (Italian Area), Queen Victoria Market, Docklands Stadium, Victoria Harbor and Southbank – the majority of which I would return to for a proper visit.
My first stop after getting off the shuttle was Federation Square, which is in the heart of Melbourne just north of the Yarra River and adjacent to the Flanders Street station.
Here’s a local that I met who’s training for his new job as an Australian Customs Officer. He takes his job very seriously...
Across the street from the square is St. Paul’s cathedral, which was very nice.
I then walked along the Yarra River for a while and took pictures. The tall building below with the gold coloring at the top is aptly named the Eureka Tower and has an observation deck that reportedly is the highest viewing platform in the Southern Hemisphere. The observation deck has a retractable "cube" with a clear floor that allows you to look straight down (88 floors) when it is extended.
In addition to the free shuttle, there is also a Melbourne City Circle tram that offers free transportation around the perimeter of the city center. This allowed me to get to all the sights that I wanted to see rather easily, including St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Parliament House and Carlton Gardens.
The street performers in the picture below were very entertaining and played some traditional South American music that was very nice. You can see from the picture that they were having a great time and the crowd was definitely enjoying the performance as well.
After the early sunset, I walked along the Yarra some more in order to get some evening shots of the Melbourne skyline.
1 comment:
that pup is too precious!!!
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