Melbourne

I landed in Melbourne on July 2, about 20 hours of flight time and two days after I left Canada.  (Gotta love crossing that International Date Line!)

Tail-wing webcam.

I flew Qantas from LAX to Melbourne.  What a great experience!  The flight attendants were super attentive, there was actual leg room, and the movie selection was good.  One of the coolest parts of the flight was the tail wing webcam.  It was a surreal experience watching the take-off and landing of the jet I was sitting on.  A jet, by the way, that was a double-decker!

I arrived at my hotel, the Travelodge Southbank, at about 9 am.  I was very thankful that my room was ready and I could check in immediately.  I didn't plan to stay long, intending to get out and take advantage of the day (and beat jet lag as soon as possible!), but being able to drop off my stuff was great.

Speaking of arriving at my hotel - the SkyBus shuttle service in Melbourne is amazing!  My return ticket cost $28 and included the shuttle from the airport to the Southern Cross Station and from there a shuttle direct to my hotel.  Return hotel pick up simply required booking a pick up time the day before.

Melbourne is a great city for tourists.  It is pedestrian friendly with lots to see and do.  You can pay the fifty odd bucks for the typical double-decker hop on / hop off bus or you can ride the free tourist bus that hits all the key locations and includes both recorded and "live" commentary about the city.

Flinders Station and the Melbourne skyline seen from Southbank.

A few highlights for me:

• The Shrine of Remembrance, initially built to honour WWI veterans from the state of Victoria, is awe-inspiring.  The building is impressive, dominating the surrounding area.  The inner room of the shrine is designed so that at the eleventh hour on Remembrance Day, the sun's light passes over the word "love" in the inscription "Greater love hath no man than this."  In the gardens surrounding the shrine are memorials for WWII veterans, war horses, and the Lonely Pine, remembering the massacre at Gallipoli.

The Shrine of Remembrance

• Wandering through the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Luna Park, St. Kilda

• Spending an afternoon at the shore of St. Kilda.  I walked through Luna Park, wandered along the beach, spied some tropical birds in the "wild," spent some time watching and waiting for Little Penguins (also known as Fairy Penguins) on the pier, and then enjoying a glass of red wine (atypical for me - I don't usually like red!) while conversing en français with my waitress, a girl from France here on a working holiday.

• Marvelling at the infamous Melbourne hook turn:  to turn right at some intersections, you have to wait in the far left lane until the light turns amber, at which point you advance, only making the turn when the light turns red, proceeding as if you had already been part of the  flow of traffic heading in the direction you are attempting to go in.

Enjoying my first Australian taste of the ocean at St. Kilda