Day 17 & 18 - Melbourne - The Comp Day 2 and Exploring The City

The Girls were going through much the same routine as yesterday with Kerrie taking unenviable job of making sure they were where they needed to be and in what they needed to be in.  This left Tim and I to duck out of all responsibilities and go exploring Melbourne.

I last lived in Melbourne when I was in the Army in 1989 (or somewhere around there).  I used to ride into the city, either by bike or train and go wandering around looking into all the book shops and finding those back alley places that sell those really odd things (no not that type of thing....). I would spend hours in some of those shops, before spending a few hours at the movies or in the library.

Tim and I spent Sunday exploring and were joined by Kerrie and the girls on Monday.  Tim and I drove in and on Monday we court the city circle team from harbour land. 

The kids were fascinated but he tram, but after being squeezed in with many other people and being thrown around at every stop they decided that there may be better ways to travel.  

The State Library

The state library is one of those places that is a bit of a "shrine" to me.  Puppa used to demonstrate at the planetarium that was here when the building was the home of the museum. I've spent a lot of time in this building.   

The kids was rather over awed by the library, Tim found the La Trobe reading room especially oppressive. Too quiet. 

We went on to look at some of the displays. There was a history of Victoria expressed in books and other objects. The collection of matches and match boxes was especially interesting too the kids. The collection included a display of Ned Kelly's armour.  On Saturday Tim spent quite some time reading the information about the Kelly gang. 

Tim challenged me to a game of chess on the big set in the kids room. Much to my shame he managed to beat me.  I think I need to be a little more careful when playing him next time. 

Lunch

On Saturday Tim was a bit of a chicken when it came to lunch. He demanded we have something normal. On Sunday I got the chance to be a bit more adventurous. I had a Japanese street food that consisted of an egg coated fried batter wrapped around meat and veg, somewhat like a cross between a wrap and a spring roll. Really nice.  The girls had Chinese and Tom had a rather unsatisfactory pie.  

China Town

Our wander through China town found it less interesting than I remember it. I think the Chinese community have expanded to enrich the rest of the city, resulting in China Town having less of a dramatic contrast. There are some interesting places here, but you have to look for them. 

Fitzroy Gardens

These gardens are built for exploration. They are so old and there are so many little hidden spots here to find. Even on a overcast autum day they were impressive. 

The kids enjoyed the fairy tree and the miniature Tudor Village. Sarah loved the Fairies. Finding a bunch of Book Crossing books somebody had left at the fairy tree was the icing on the cake.  I think we will see if we can do something with Book Crossing when we get home.  We certainly have enough books to release. 

The Rest

There is so much of this stuff hidden around corners in this place, you could spend ages just wandering around sticking your nose into places and looking for the odd and interesting. 

We found a curiosity shop filled with skeletons and other scientific stuff like stuffed birds and butterflies. 

The Royal Arcade is home to not only Gog and Magog, but a four tune teller who could be strength out of Harry Potter and a shop filled with babushka dolls. 

On our way in for dinner we found we had parked almost out the front of Critica Hit, a shop filled with sci fi, fantasy and gaming paraphnaila. It took a lot of self control to be able to walk out of there without at least a Dr Who Tardis tea pot. 

Dinner

Meals are always a difficult problem for us. This is not made any easier when presented with the number of options for food that are in Melbourne. We ended up stepping out of our comfort zone and eating at a Japanese cafe. I had a yummy ramen soup, the others having various other dishes.  We could have got half the food and shared it and still been full. 

The time in Melbourne City turned out to be a bit of an unexpected highlight for me. A lot of nostalgia and the excitement of how much the place has changed kept it interesting.  There is so much we did not get to, we would need at least a wee (and a second mortgage) to see it all. Over all I think we did well. 

The kids are happy to leave Melbourne and its fickle weather behind. They had a great comp but it is time to move on.