Friday, September 2, 2011

Melbourne Day 2

Melbourne Day 2, Starring...

MOLLY!

CHARLIE!


AND ANIEL!

Destination: Royal Botanical Gardens

On the way, we went through Federation Square - full of these odd metallic buildings (and a few large alphabet letters).
This is the view of a bridge over the Yarra River along the way - maybe you can see the Conlins on the bridge?

On our city walk, we stopped by the Shrine of Remembrance near the Royal Botanical Gardens. There's a ceremony that they hold on the 11th of November to remember the World War I Veterans from the state of Victoria. Part of of it includes a ray of sunlight that goes from the top of the building over a stone on the floor in the middle of this building. They do a mini version of it on the hour that we all managed to stay mostly quiet throughout.


We went to the Botanical Gardens to see the statues of Bunyip Bluegum, Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff, the characters from "our" Magic Pudding book. Sadly for us, the children's garden is closed for the winter to let the plants recover from the other three seasons of attention. There they are in the background with some angry children in the foreground.

A final word on the Botanical Gardens and another aside: There is 4KM running/walking track around the Royal Botanical Gardens that I learned about from a guy on the bus beside me in Sydney on my way to the City To Surf. It's lit between 5:30 AM and 12 AM, but I only used it for a bit between 6:15 and 7 :-). Aside: on my way back from my run I passed by the Rod Laver Stadium, which was advertising the upcoming concerts in this order: Dolly Parton, Placido Domingo, DefLeppard and Motley Crue. It made me smile on my way home along the river.

I got the afternoon off (or on) to give my own talk. Mike had take away pad thai waiting for me when I got home. Yummy! The night before the kids and I foraged for food on our cute little street, Flinders Lane, in Melbourne. We came across a waffle place with a very friendly, French accented owner. After deciding on the family pack of waffles made with Belgian sugar, the secret ingredient, and expressing his hope that Obama will be the next president, he wrote down on a piece of paper where we should go to be sure to see kangaroos on our next part of the trip..."Anglesea golf course". What is it exactly with kangaroos and golf courses?


1 comment:

Sheila and Mike said...

I think the kangaroos like to hide golf balls in their pouches.