Four highlights on one day!

 

Grey skies, not too warm this Tuesday morning. Had a tour arranged at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), and, no, it's not an elite historic English-style cricket clubhouse, but a rather modern, huge arena used for different sports (photo).

Passed by the Melbourne Tennis Center and famous Rod Lever Arena (left) on the way, equally impressive!

 

The MCG gets compared to the Wembley or the Yankee Stadium and dates back in 1853, when the then 15-year-old Melbourne Cricket Club was forced to move. Plenty of international cricket games took place here, but other sporting spectacles, too, including soccer, rugby, the 2006 Commonwealth Games, blockbuster concerts, pope's masses and Aussie football. Record crowd there was 121,696! On the world stage, the MCG’s most notable attendance record (still standing) is 1.153 million patrons for the 15 days of the 1956 Olympics.

The Australian Sports Museum is located in the stadium and that's where we spent time after the great tour with a cricket club veteran (photo above). The museum shows interactive exhibits and is a mecca for sports enthusiasts, celebrating the diverse sporting culture of Australia including Olympics etc.. A special exhibition with personal items and memorabilia honored Shane Warne,  a cricket legend (photo on left).

Next destination: The Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, founded in 1846. We walked over from the MCG, along the river (photo above, right). The garden is more of a park, an arboretum in the English-style with historic cottage buildings and pavilions than the rather small-scale botanical gardens we know from home. 

It extends over 38 ha and houses a collection of  almost 50,000 individual plants representing 8,500 different species from around the world, including plant collections such as camellias, rainforest flora, cacti and succulents, roses, etc. It was developed scientifically by the German Ferdinand von Mueller (1857–1873) - who we met several times before! 

Below: Noisy Miner at work,,, 

 

Streetcar - very convenient in Melbourne! - brought us to St. Kilda Beach next, located just 6 km from downtown. Known for its palm-lined boardwalk, a long pier and a long sandy beach, we passed Luna Park - similar to the one in Coney Island/NYC - and the famous Sea Bath. Views went the Port Philip and the Cruiseship Harbour. Suddenly a storm went in, not much rain, but heavy winds. Hurried into town, to the center of St. Kilda to catch a tram back.

 

 

 

 

 

Evening entertainment and dinner at Queen Victoria M​​arket, where the last Wednesday Night Market took place for the season. The regular vendors were closed, but one big hall was transformed into a fun zone. As one of the great nineteenth century markets in Victoria it was Melbourne’s chief wholesale market and has played an important role in the economic and social history of the city. There was a stage set up, vendors of all kinds (jewelry, books, clothing, candles, artwork,,,) to be found, the Lord Mayor Nicolas Reece (photo below, right) was present greeting International Students who just started into their semester at Melbourne University, and, for them a Chinese New Year's Dance was presented.

 

 

But what was definitely different and unique were the food offerings: First, our Greek dinner,,,

 

 

Escargots above

Pasta

Paella

Greek skewers,,,

Over a dozen different countries at least sold their culinary specialities, Nepalese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Turkish, French (escargots!) and many more. Germany was only represented with a pretzel vendor outside,,, Never have seen such a variety and quality of food like here, nowhere in the world, and, all went for reasonable prices (10-20 Euro)! And our dinner really tasted like at a street vendor in Athens. Fantastic event! Photos below from our walk home.

Melbourne

Foggy this morning on Sovereign Hill in Ballarat, but soon, the sun burned the fog and it warmed up! Decided to drive to the Europcar station in Ballarat first, to get the tire checked. Guys there pumped up air and said it looks o.k. Well, it low pressure stayed the same, but drive to Melbourne was easy, a bit over one hour. Even stopped at an Blundstone Australia outlet store - work shoes originally, very "fashionable" nowadays, and, Peter had to have a pair. More traffic towards the airport - so glad, when we got rid of our "Chinese AI-Drama car"!

At the Melbourne Airport, around noon, we took the city bus into town
(about 25 min) and arrived to modern Southern Cross Station (photos below), in downtown Melbourne, too early for check-in in our AirBnB. So, we had some "real" coffee and an almond croissants and strolled through the Spencer Outlet Center, adjacent to the station building before we began our search for the right entrance into our skyscraper - took us some time! 

 

 

But we found it, the modern skyscraper in the center of the photo, fiddled around with the mailbox where the key was stored in a keybox and took the elevator up to the 41st floor of a modern highrise with apartments, mostly apparently inhabitated/rented by young Asian people. 

 

Unpacked and went out again to explore the city, first by using the free historic streetcar, which goes around town in a circle. Stopped at the very well equipped Visitor Center at Federal Plaza at Flinders Street Station, with the Koori Heritage Trust and NGV (National Gallery - Contemporary Art). It's closeby the Yarra River with a nice promenade. We watched the rowers there.

 

Passed by Town Hall along Swanston Street passing Chinatown and Greek Town and through the Arcades - a shoppers' paradise! - including the Emporium, Melbourne Walk, Collins Arcade and Center Place.

Town Hall above, Flinders Street Station below, Chinatown further below

Degraves Street above, where the best coffee is supposed to be served!

Docklands next - also called the "District", the entertainment center of town, with a big Ferris Wheel, a marina and "Urban Alley Brewery". First impression: great modern architecture, compact city center, ocean is missing, but there is a river,,,

We prepared dinner at the apartment (though in regard to kitchen utensils it wasn't well equipped): lamb steaks, potato salad, corn dip, tomatoes and avocado. Though, we improvised quite a bit it was good!