Day 6 in Melbourne

Mar 25, 2010 by Joel

Another day in Melbourne, and more sights seen and activities undertaken. Today was quite a full day really, including the Melbourne Zoo, a little walk through the Queen Victoria Markets, Melbourne Museum, a stop in a Cafe, Bought some good Chocolate, and Finally the Sunset at Eureka Skydeck.

The day did not start out to badly, even considering that I did miss the tram I was aiming at, however with the frequency of trams at 8.30 in the morning it only set me back about 10 minutes. So by the time I got into the Zoo it was about 9.30. I was expecting to spend about 3 hours here, and in the end that is almost right what it came in at. However to achieve this it did take going around quite quickly. Still I managed to take hundreds of Photo’s at the Zoo, I really am going to have to take only the best ones to share with you on this, sharing all of them would almost be impractical.

Anyway being the Zoo, they have a lot of animals, some that I had heard of and many that I had not, but again like many things the pictures probably tell a better story.

Once I was finished at the Museum, I headed back towards the city on the Tram. I had a couple of options here, however got off at Victoria St, just near the Victoria Markets. I did not walk through everything, however I do think I saw just about anything that could be sold being sold, obviously fruit and veg, also things like wallets, bags, t-shirts, belts, souvenirs,  lollies, and just about everything in between. The only problem is that so much of it looks cheap and junky, it is very different to the markets I have previously been to, if not just in size, in breadth of what they have.

From here it was onto the Melbourne Museum, and I must say this is one thing that has disappointed me a little. They have a really huge building, almost over proportioned. One wing is dedicated to kids, 8-13. Then there are 5 major galleries, and a few smaller gallery spaces. Really there was two area’s that i think were done well, the Living Rainforest, in the center, I think was great. Also the area they had dedicated to Insects and Bugs. I think I spent more of my time in the Museum in these two area’s then the rest put together.

Potentially other area’s of the museum may have got my attention more if I had actually had a big interest in them, however at the same time I can see that if you had more then a passing interest in any of the topics that their were galleries for you potentially would have been disappointed in what was on display. I doubt that I would make the effort to go back to the Museum again.

As you may have guessed it did not take me long to get around the Museum. So I headed back to the hotel, and got a load of my back. My camera may not weigh a lot (less then 2kg from memory) however it does quickly start to feel a lot heavier on your back. I also got together my laptop and headed down to find a Coffee Shop, which I found one on Little Collins Street, called City Blend. So I enjoyed a Cup of Hot Chocolate, and then crazy enough I headed towards the Haigh Chocolate Shop in the Block Arcade. Their Chocolate is really good, if not a little expensive it is still really good.

Finally after grabbing some Subway for dinner, I headed up to the Eureka Skydeck, to see the sunset. Gees am I glad I did, the sun was a solid Red Disc, I am thinking due to some smoke haze, It was really an amazing sunset to see though. Glad that I did not miss It.

Tomorrow is kind of a free day, so it will be open as to just what we will find me doing tomorrow, hopefully something interesting.