Melbourne is the 2nd largest city in Australia and was the official Australian capital from 1901 to 1927. It was almost called Batmania after one of its founders, John Batman who came to this area in 1835 from Tasmania. That gave us a chuckle having just watched “Dark Knight”2 days ago on ship. It’s located on the Southeast coast right above Tasmania. Unlike Sydney, Melbourne was never a penal colony.
We had a morning excursion so I (Janice) was up early and went outside to check the weather (coolish) and found a brilliant sunrise over Melbourne.
Melbourne Sunrise
The the blanket-like extent of its color was unusual and due to the bush fires that had been raging for weeks in the area with many deaths and much property destruction. We had docked fairly close to the city but not actually in the city a we had in Sydney, at St. Kilda’s Pier.
Melbourne from the Rotterdam
Our panoramic bus excursion started out along the coastline of Port Philip Bay toward St. Kilda’s Beach, an older area that it being rehabed but still retains a lot of its original architecture and some spectacular “iron lace.”
Classic Architecture
Iron Lace
We stopped at the Royal Botanical Gardens with 45 minutes time to tour on our own. We headed toward Fern Gully and the Ornamental Lake seeing huge tree specimens along the way. Dad loved the fig trees with their convoluted trunk.
John and a Fig Tree
There were black swans by the lake and Cockatoos in the trees. Dad was tickled by the sign pointing to “Long Island” because he was born on the one in NYC.
To Long Island
Back on the bus we crossed the Yarra River (which was the great divide between the wealthy and the workers) on its oldest bridge
We admired more of Melbourne’s architecture both old and new together.
Re-purpose the Old and Build Some New
Then on to Fitzroy Gardens to see Captain James Cook’s Cottage.
Captain James Cook
It is the “oldest” building in Australia because it was built in England in 1755 by his parents and brought here & re-erected in 1934 to honor his mapping of Australia.
Back on the bus for more city architecture including the tallest, newest building in Melbourne, the Eureka Skydeck 88 which has the highest viewing platform in the Southern hemisphere and the world’s only “Edge Experience,”a glass-walled & floored box-type room that is darkened when you enter it, it is slide out from the side of the building, your photo is taken as the sides and floor become crystal clear at the touch of a button with the sound of breaking glass. In the photo you can just see it starting to get slid out from the building.
Melbourne's Edge Experience
We got back to the ship in time for lunch. While dad rested Hanson and I decided to walk along the Bay to St. Kilda’s to get a better view of the “iron lace” that reminded us so much of New Orleans. The story goes that it was made from the pig iron that was used for ballast on the old ships and that at one time there were lots of foundries in all the old ports that made this decorative ironwork. It is now protected by law.
More Iron Lace in St. Kilda
We also saw this whimsical sculpture on the front porch of a building.
Woman
We had heard the story on our tour about this building which was built over the outlet of all the open sewers in Melbourne’s early days when it sometimes had the name of “Smellbourne.”
Belucci on St. Kilda (What Lies Beneath?)
Walking back to the ship we decided to take our shoes off and wade in the Tasmanian Sea.
Wading in the Tasmanian Sea
All aboard was at 5:30 pm. We sailed away as we were eating dinner in La Fontaine and, as foretold by the captain, the ship listed radically to one side due to a combination of wind, current and a narrow channel that we had to pass through. The evening’s entertainment was an excellent juggler.
Jugggler