.jpg)
“Well, well, well…we’re back in Melbourne, back in Australia!”
(This is the opening statement from Glenn Fry on the Eagles Farewell I Tour DVD…our absolute concert DVD!).
Our tour of Melbourne (pronounced (Mel’ben here) began at 9:00 am when we boarded our bus for an overview of the city. Our first stop was at the Melbourne Museum, which is a large modern building. We were taken first to the Aboriginal area, where a guide walked us through the history of the original inhabitants of Australia.
For the detailed Melbourne Photo Gallery click here.
The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the African continent around 70,000 years ago, and arrived in Australia around 50,000 years ago. The term “Aboriginal” has traditionally been applied to indigenous inhabitants of mainland Australia, Tasmania, and some of the other adjacent islands.
Within the museum there was also a “Forest Walk” were we meandered through a wooded area. At first we didn’t think there was much to see, other than trees, but we found a guide and she introduced us to the Satin Bowerbirds. These birds, as part of their courtship behavior, collect blue objects to place in their “bower” to demonstrate to females their ability to collect things (presumably, if they can find and collect blue objects, they can find food, etc.). The guide held up blue water bottle caps and the male would fly over to her and take it right out of her hand!
Next, we were off to the Shrine of Remembrance. This is a memorial constructed to commemorate the lost lives of 19,000 Australians from the State of Victoria, who died fighting in WWI. Australia didn’t have a “land war” in WWI, but they did send their soldiers out to assist the Allies (Britain, France & Russia) in fighting the Central Powers (primarily Germany).
The sanctuary contains the marble Stone of Remembrance; upon which is engraved the words “Greater love hath no man”. Once a year, on November 11th at 11 a.m. — Remembrance Day, a ray of sunlight shines through an aperture in the roof to light up the word “Love” in the inscription. The engineers and astronomers of the time undertook this significant feat with complex equations and exact construction. There were all relieved when, on the first November 11th after it’s construction, the beam of light came through at exactly 11:00 am.
The last stop of the day was at the Eureka Sky Deck, the Southern Hemisphere’s highest viewing platform located in the tallest building in Melbourne. The elevator takes just 38 seconds to travel from the ground to the 88th floor Sky Deck. It was a great view and a beautiful day.
Back on the ship we opted for a spirited game of table tennis and then a lounge by the pool with a book and a margarita. As we are docking overnight in Melbourne, we opted to take dinner on the La Veranda deck where we enjoyed a spectacular view of the city, with warm weather and great food!
Photography Comments:
High white-out sky gave way to clouds and blue skies later in the day. There was some haze throughout the day which doesn’t help your pictures at all. We had a nice big bus with clean windows and they gave us a nice overview of the city. I tried to catch some street scenes of the marketplaces but they just didn’t come out very well and we didn’t go back into town. Sorry. I was trying out the Fuji X100 again today and got some great shots here and there. Also took the D700 and 28-300. The glass in the Sky Deck had a lot of reflections but, by putting the X100 directly on the glass managed to get what I thought was a great view of the city. This is a city that deserves a few days of walking around to get some really good shots but we are going out to the bush tomorrow.
Trip Summary » Travel with Dale & Margaret - […] Melbourne, Australia […]