With not even two full days to spend in Melbourne, I was up and out early, ready to explore.
The first thing that I did was find new accomodations. Since my Air BnB experience proved to be less than satisfactory, I walked right next door to the Holiday Inn and booked a room. Perhaps my assumptions were too high and I expected a bit more of a welcome rather than 3 changes in my contact person prior to arrival. Perhaps as a newbie to the city, I needed a bit more guidance and information. Perhaps I just needed a bit more cleanliness. Whatever the reason, my instincts had me moving on. After booking a room and feeling much better about the situation, I eagerly set out to learn a bit about Melbourne. I truly have no idea how many miles I walked (more than 5, less than 10), but I do know that I walked the city for hours.
What better way to start my tour than by taking a view of the city from the 88th floor of the Skydeck.
Next up was a walk through the National Gallery of Victoria,
and by the Victoria Barracks.
From the Skydeck I had seen the Shrine of Remembrance and knew that I needed to visit this solumn place.
During my two days of exploring this great city, I was so pleased to see all the green! Melbourne boasts many parks full of gorgeous, mature trees, and the streets are adorned similarly.
Initially I wondered why so many of the abundant sidewalk cafes were not full (I never waited long for a table!). Then I realized that the parks were full of people enjoying a picnic lunch.
The public art and celebration of the aboriginal culture were quite evident, as were the signs of activism and efforts to protect the environment. Aren’t you glad I didn’t take a photo of one of the many, many recycling bins? Well, to be honest, I did! I just didn’t share it 🙂
The city of Melbourne has an annual cultural festival called Moomba, an Aboriginal term which means ‘lets get together and have fun.’
What a crowd!
I thoroughly enjoyed this street performer while drinking a cold, local beer at a nearby pub.
Both old and new architecture, often right next to the other, were eye catching.
My friends who enjoy searching for the good deal would have loved the Queen Victoria Market.
This city accomodates and all are welcome. I loved seeing and took advantage of the free and easy Public Transportation, the easy walkability, the recycling bins, the Free WiFi, and YES, the clean toilets everywhere!
Melbourne is such an easy place to be a tourist, and I could not have been happier with my two days there.
Thanks to Boomdee and Alys for teaching me, after 6 years of blogging, how to use a photo gallery.
Thanks for reaching the end of this very full post. Next Post: Sydney!
Life on the Bike and other Fab Things 
Somebody needs to teach me ho to use a photo gallery too! As always your photos are stunning and it looks like your saw more of Melbourne in two days than I did in ten!!
I use the improved editing facility – there is a link/switch to it at the top of the draft page
Pauline, I’ve found it so helpful when I’ve got so many images to post. Otherwise, visitors to the blog would never make it through the posts 🙂
I just finished the post about Sydney!
Great galleries. Usual excellent photography.
Thank you, Derrick. It is so hard to narrow down the photos to a manageable amount 🙂 The trip was such an incredible experience!
Hope to be able to visit your blog soon!
The first thing I do after a trip is to cull the pictures – believe it or not 🙂
Those pictures are wonderful ! ♥
Thanks so much! It was an incredible trip, and I just posted about Sydney 🙂
You packed a lot into a couple of days and really captured the look of the city!
Kerry, it was so hard to decide how to spend my limited time … even though every moment was a gift! Just posted about Sydney.
Hope to visit your blog soon!
Beautiful images Laurie 🙂 I really think when you retire from your bread and butter profession you should think about freelancing for tourism boards. Not only are your photos excellent the stories that go with them are wonderful.
Gosh, I love to hear you say this. Wouldn’t that be an amazing thing?
I’m not the best photographer OR the best writer, but I can do well enough.
Just posted about Sydney 🙂
(As you know, I loved your photos from the March)
What fabulous photos, what an interesting city… what a fabulous trip! Thanks for the tour, Laurie…
Thanks, Mary! It really was fabulous!
Looks like a blast of beauty, LB!
Lisa, it was amazing! And the freedom to just explore was a real gift. Just posted about Sydney.
Hope you are well and that I can get to your blog, soon!
You covered plenty of sights in the time you had. Melbourne is a great city to visit for any length of time.
It was just amazing! It sounds like you’ve been to Melbourne. Anything I missed?
We lived there for three years and visit often to see family in Victoria. The Immigration Museum is excellent and gives a fascinating insight to how Australia’s diverse population came about.
Stunning photos, Laurie. That looks like a beautiful city. How wonderful that you could take a few extra days to see some of Australia. I have family there and have never been able to make the trip. You will never regret this trip. Looking forward to more photos. I took photos of the recycling bins in Germany last time we were there. But I wasn’t blogging then. 😦
I love knowing that I am not the only one who takes photos of recycling bins 🙂 I’ve been doing a lot of ruminating about the trip, in particular the differences between the US and NZ / OZ. America came up short in several ways!
Thanks so much for checking out all of the blog posts, Marlene. It means alot!
My daughter really wants to move there but I think she should visit first. She just wants to leave the country for a while. I was reading the novel by Andy Andrews called “The Heart Mender” and he had a section in there about what Alexander Tyler had to say about democracy that I thought you would be interested in. It’s been a hard read that I keep putting down. It’s a good book though. Here’s what I found out about Alexander Tyler.
http://www.theroadtoemmaus.org/RdLb/21PbAr/Hst/US/DmocAthnsUS.htm
Given where I’m from originally, NZ is looking good, though I have family in Australia. I’m not naturally political but these days you have to be.
Wow, what a STUNNING gallery. Gives me a great feel for the place. Well done. 🙂
Thank you so much, Frank! I appreciate your kind words
Thanks for the tour of Melbourne, Laurie. Looks like a wonderful place to visit when in Australia. I loved looking at the green, knowing that it will be here in a couple of months.
My favorite photo? “Walking Sucks” and the bike photo. Of course! 🙂
I just had to post that Walking Sucks bicycle ad. Too great, right?
I had intended to rent a bike for the day, but I decided that since the streets and paths were so full of people, I might run in to someone. I wish I’d had another day.
Hope you are well, Mary! I hope to get to your blog soon!
Now I want to go to Melbourne, too! What a gorgeous and eclectic collection of photos, Laurie. It’s a wonder you have any shoe-soles left. Wow! Simply wow!
Alys! How have you found time to visit blogs? I know you jumped right back into work and you’ve got college visits ahead of you, too.
Tonight was my first free evening since getting home and I just posted about Sydney.
Phew! Took too many photos 🙂
Laurie, I spent some time this past weekend reading blog posts. I hate to fall behind. I’m back working, but not as hectic as you are and I haven’t had the travel you’ve had either. Things start to heat up again in a week with college visits, a weekend chaperoning and volunteer activities. It’s lovely seeing your Australia photos. You must have been in photographer’s heaven. xo
Oh my goodness! I must visit this city. Such beautiful public art, parks, history and abundant clean toilets. A place to love! Thanks for taking us along on the tour.
You are an amazing woman Laurie. You get yourself there all by yourself! You manage a stressful accomodation situation, all by yourself! You explore a new city in foriegn country, all by yourself! *AND* you have endless fun doing it all. I’m should endeaver to be as carefree.
I loved visiting Melbourne again but with you! So many things to see and do. We didn’t see, The Shrine of Remembrance, so thanks so much for sharing that. The bike ad cracked me up 😀 I thought Melbourne was a nice mix of historical architecture and modern, buffered by a lot of greenery and easily walkable too. Isn’t the free transit a deal? We also hit the Victorian Market but didn’t stay too long. If you lived there it’d be great! I bought extra underwear, LOL. We weren’t in the city the whole time, since every other day we toured out of town, so I think you saw more than us. Thanks for sharing all your awesome travel memories hon! xo K
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Wonderful post! Melbourne looks like such a vibrant, beautiful city!
You really fit a lot in! Melbourne is such a great city. Good job on the photos too.