Melbourne 1

Man, was it hot when we got here on Monday! We arrived at lunch time and by 3 pm it was 44 degrees - burning hot. We are staying in a delightful old place called The Nunnery (history in a minute) which has no air conditioning (those nuns were tough) but at least our window opens and we have a ceiling fan (the guy next door can’t open his window!) We retreated to the pub next door which was air conditioned, served cold cider and was showing tennis on the TV! We stayed there for quite a long time. It wasn’t a very pleasant night, but it has cooled down significantly now and we are much happier. Also John is at last feeling a bit better but he’s still not 100% - still coughing (barking, actually) and feeling stuffed up. He has a few more days to go on the latest antibiotic and we are keeping our fingers crossed that that will be IT!
The Nunnery - it’s a hostel in two parts and I had originally booked us into the hostel rather than the guesthouse, but something made me call and up-grade before we arrived and it’s a very good thing we did. The hostel part is very hostely and the guesthouse is lovely (although we have to share the bathroom), There are only 6 rooms in the guesthouse and it is much more civilized! We even have TV in our room. It was built about 100 years ago and has been a nunnery, home for young women and now a hostel. There is a lovely little courtyard with a fountain and palm trees which is very restful (see picture). The Nunnery is in an area of Melbourne called Fitzroy which is another “edgy” neighbourhood (like Newtown where we stayed in Sydney). This means that there are some very interesting characters around as well has hundreds of little restaurants and cafes and weird shops, all within walking distance. Our first night here, we walked down the main drag and were drawn to a little Chinese restaurant by the incredibly cool jazz coming from inside - rather strange combination, but it worked! We’ve bought tram passes to get around - the tram system is very well organized and we are quite close to the city centre so it’s easy to get around. There is no way we are considering renting a car here -they have the strangest right-turn rule at major traffic lights - if you want to turn right, you have to sit in the LEFT lane until it’s safe to go. I’m sure you get used to it if you live here, but it looks pretty scary!
Melbourne is a really pretty city with an amazing mix of architectural styles - classical Greek, modern high-rises in all kinds of shapes and sizes and everything in between (and John has taken photos of almost all or them)! The streets are very wide (to allow for all those ox carts) and are lined with trees. The tallest building is 88 stories high and has an observation platform with a GLASS FLOOR that extends 3 metres out over the city - one tourist attraction we won’t be doing!
Now that John is feeling a bit more human, we’ve been able to do a few touristy things (although we have been taking it very slowly and often come home in the afternoon so he can have a “nanny nap”! We visited the Australian Centre for the Moving Image on Wednesday, an amazing look at how movies began and where they are headed with lots of examples of all the old stuff like magic lanterns etc. It was rather overwhelming with lots of noises and voices all around, but extremely interesting.
On Thursday, we rode the tram down to the Docklands which is an emerging area of Melbourne down on the water. At the moment, it’s basically a huge shopping area with lots of restaurants - not many boats to be seen. As people know, we are not shoppers, but John did buy a pair of Ugg slippers (Uggs are sheepskin boots and shoes made here in Melbourne which are known world-wide for their warmth). We went to an exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s work in the afternoon - again very well done but rather overwhelming with lots of examples of his art, inventions, ideas etc.
In the evening we went to the Princess Theatre (which is absolutely gorgeous with beautiful decorations and paintings -see picture) to see Jersey Boys. It’s the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and it was brilliant! The guys who played Frankie and the 4 seasons were quite amazing - they could all play and sing just like the real thing - and they even looked exactly like the originals! Of course, the music is from “our” era and is SO catchy - almost everyone in the audience was singing and bouncing along with it. The play was about how the band started and evolved, and was funny, sad and thoughtful - and of course, there was the music which was GREAT! So that was a huge success.
Today we went to see the cottage where Captain Cook was born which was dismantled and brought over from England some time ago. Then on to the Shrine of Remembrance which was very moving. The Australians take the honoring of their war dead very seriously - all the major cities have huge memorials.
We have another 4 days here and then we’re off to New Zealand which is likely to be a little less frantic and a little cooler.