Happy Birthday to Me!

October 23: 

Cloudy & cool today as we took a city tour of Melbourne.  Had to "rug up" ("dress warmly" per John Fitzgibbon, our tour manager--he's great!).   Some local dishes at breakfast included a rice pilaf-like dish (rice w/veggies); pork & beans, and cooked tomatoes.  I always pass on the P&B, but the rest was good with the traditional fare of scrambled eggs, meats, and PASTRIES (personal downfall).  They have very good, but strong coffee there.  They call them long black (2 shots of espresso) or short black (1 shot of espresso).  Pretty good to wake one up in a hurry!                                        

Melbourne is a nice Victorian city with that type of architecture in the Exhibition Hall, Parliament Building, hotels. On some of the buildings was lacework that reminded me of New Orleans. The lacework was made from the ballast from old ships. Gold rush was in 1850's; unions began at that time, also.                                 

Exhibition Hall

Windsor Hotel

Victoria Parliament Building



Parliament Building Grounds

St. Patrick's Cathedral (circa 1850) was very pretty although parts were being refurbished.




 

Inside Conservatory at Fizroy Gardens

One thing I noticed in Australia and New Zealand is that they have large areas of land they have devoted to parks and gardens.  People spend a lot of time there, and they were enjoying the beautiful spring weather.  Fitzroy Gardens was one of those places.

Fairy Tree-carved & painted in tree trunk

 Also noticed that their public 'facilities' are numerous and very nice!  Called 'loo', 'dunny', or, in the Outback-- 'long drop!'  (TMI!!)  

 Another highlight of this day was going to the Gallipoli Shrine of Remembrance.  It was built in memory of the ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) troops who were lost at the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915.  It is really for all Australians & New Zealanders who fought in all wars.  We noticed that virtually every town we went to had shrines of remembrance.  The building is built in such a way that every day, when the sun is in a certain position, it shines directly on this stone.  Very moving. 

Melbourne skyline from top of Shrine (eternal flame on ground on left)

 A bit of time was spent at the Queen Victoria Market near our hotel.  It's a very large farmer's market & 'flea' market type place.

That evening I celebrated my 'big' birthday with my 43 new friends and about 300 Little Penguins on St. Philip's Island (2 hour drive south of Melbourne). Wish my family could have been there, too.   Beautiful scenery, even though very rainy and cool.  Lots of sea gulls & their babies.  Sea lions on the rocks.

Wallaby in the wild (kangaroo cousin)

 These Little Penguins put on a parade every evening. They are about 13-14" tall.  Every morning hundreds of them go out into the water to gather fish and then return after sundown to go to their burrows & feed their families.  Sometimes the males go out; sometimes the females.  Sometimes they stay out for days.  They follow the same path up into their burrows when they return.  We must have seen at least 300 of them 'waddle' by-- plump with their fish.  Found out later that they waddle because it takes less energy to do that than walk normally.  Sometimes they would tip over, then get up and go on.  So spectacular and cute!  
 

The dinner we had there was not that good, but we DID get introduced to the traditional local dessert that immediately became our favorite -- pavlova.  It was named after the Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova, in 1926 when she visited Australia.  It is baked meringue topped with heavy cream and fresh fruit!--  scrumpdileicious!   From that night on, we got it whenever it was available!

We had a late night & had to get up at 4:15 AM next morning to make one of those many flights (first of many early risings -- extremely difficult for a non-morning person!)...