World Travel with Bob: Melbourne, Australia

We arrived in Melbourne at 7am and will be here until 3:30pm. Just enough time to visit a few sites in the central business district. Melbourne was Australia’s first capital and has a population of about 3 million. One interesting fact is that Melbourne hosts the largest “Greek” community outside of Greece.

The weather was great today, ranging from mid-60s to low 70s. During our time in Melbourne, we were able to visit the Queen Victoria Market which includes several city blocks. The market hosts meat and dairy cases, fresh fruit and vegetable stands and stalls with inexpensive tourist items, such as shoes, games, t-shirts, leather jackets, and travel souvenirs. From the market we strolled over to the State Library, Carlton Gardens, Melbourne Museum, Treasury Gardens and Fitzroy Gardens. At the museum, there was a display about Phar Lap, the famous Australian racing horse from the 1930s. Apparently, after his unexplained death in California, parts of his body were distributed to several museums with the Melbourne Museum receiving the hide for taxidermy work.

Late this afternoon, we departed for New Zealand. It will a couple of days to reach Milford Sound.