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 Around 6:00 AM, we slowly pulled into Melbourne. Around 7:00 AM, when it was bright enough, we could see the apparently not very busy commercial port and our first view of the city much better. We had a shore excursion planned to see more of the city this morning, then a free afternoon before we sailed at 4:30. |
 Around 7:00 AM, we grabbed breakfast (can you tells whose is whose?), then went back to our room to wait until it was time for our shore excursion. While getting ready to go, I took this picture of how bad my skin was peeling from the sunburn I received in Sydney as we rode around the city on top of the Big Bus. I'd be putting on sunscreen for the rest of the cruise. |
 At 8:30, we reported to the Vista Lounge on Deck 7 to meet up with Steve and Teresa and others that would be taking Princess-organized shore excursions. Our tour was called "Easy Melbourne: City Drive And Fitzroy Gardens" and would last about four hours. By 9:15, Group #15 was on its way. |
 So here are a bunch of pictures as we drove around the city (many will have reflections from my window): Right away we noticed a lot of construction happening in Melbourne. |
 We drove across the Yarra River that runs through the city... |
 ...into downtown, where we saw trams (with overhead electric wires) running, which are apparently very popular forms of transportation in the city. As we drove on, we went through a pretty classy shopping district (here you can see Louis Vuitton and Gucci stores). |
 We passed the Parliament Building where this was on display out front. The flag on the right is the Australian Aboriginal flag, while the one on the left is the Palestinian flag. (We had seen a pro-Palestine demonstration in Sydney.) Then we passed the Melbourne Museum, continuing to drive down the tree-lined streets, eventually... |
 ...getting a good view of some of Melbourne's architecturally-diverse skyscrapers in the distance. We continued to drive on; here are a few pictures from along our route. |
 Then this caught my eye. Not our Batman, but this from Wikipedia: "John Batman (21 January 1801 – 6 May 1839) was an Australian grazier livestock, traditionally on horse |
 Around 11:00, we finally reached our destination: the Shrine of Remembrance, a war memorial built to honor the men and women of Victoria (the Australian state Melbourne is in) who served in World War I, but now functions as a memorial to all Australians who have served in any war. It was a good time to stop, as pretty much everyone headed inside to find the restrooms! Due to my slowness, Mei-O and I didn't have time to climb the steps to the top, but from the ground level, we did have this great view. |
 Did you catch this in the last picture above? It's become one of Melbourne's most significant buildings, a 32-story apartment building that features - in an architectural world first - the image of the influential Aboriginal artist and activist, William Barak (1824–1903) across its 100-meter-high (328 feet) sculpted facade. |
 This building, "Australia 108", is the tallest building in Australia. That odd gold-colored thing around this 108-story apartment building and hotel is its star-shaped "sky lobby" on the 69th through 71st floors which contains some restaurants and bars, quite a unique design. Finally, here are a few more pictures from our stop at the Shrine of Remembrance. Next Top |
