Melbourne Again

We've finished 2 more days in Melbourne.  Day one, Wednesday, was a drizzly day.  We made our way from where the bus dropped us to Federation Square with a stop at the cathedral.

At Federation Square, we discovered the ACMI (Australian Centre for Moving Images).  With the nasty weather, we took advantage of it and found it to be a fun and fascinating museum.

Before returning to the ship, we made the obligatory stop for coffee.  It's just what you do in Melbourne.

In the evening there was a special event on the ship.  Two of the singers had been married that afternoon and then held their reception on the ship in the Horizons Lounge.  We have sailed with Bryn and Bella previously and really connected with them.  We were thrilled to be asked to join them at the reception.  To be honest, they invited everyone, but we felt that our invitation was special and we wound up sitting with the other guests from the wedding and meeting the parents.  It was really incredible that the ship allowed them to do this and the captain came up to participate in a toast.  It was indeed a special evening.

Today, Thursday, the weather was better - no rain and lots of sunshine for a while at least.  After taking the tram into the CBD, we embarked on a walking tour of street art.  There was lots of it!

A suggested stop along the way was the Italian cafe, Brunetti's.  It was huge and delicious!

After that, we had the caffeine and calories to continue our art walk.

Then we finally made it to our true destination.  Since she had been in Melbourne 18 years ago, Linda has raved about the Queen Victoria Market.  And both previous times we had been in Melbourne since then (including last week) the Vic Market had been closed.  Today it was, at last, open!

It's a good market if you are shopping for Aussie souvenirs and other miscellaneous stuff (or what some would call crap).  Okay, so we bought a few things.  Was it worth the wait - I'll have to think about that.

After riding the old circle tram (no. 35) around back to Federation Square, we stopped for lunch and Linda watched the Australian Open on the square while we ate (not really).

Tonight we sail back to Burnie, our last Aussie port before crossing the Tasman Sea to New Zealand where our first point of interest will be cruising Milford Sound.  Our kids know that I will be taking way too many pictures of Mitre Peak!

After viewing all of that street art, I offer today's truism: "PRESENTATION IS AS IMPORTANT AS CONTENT".

Peace and blessing,

Linda and Larry