Pictures of two walks, and descriptions of what's not pictured

We've been exploring outside for the past couple days. The first walk was along the bay - we'd gone south before (to Luna Park), so we wanted to see what happened if we went north.

Walk #1

The weather changes really quickly here (that was another thing we were promised before coming). Beautiful sunshine one moment and cold rain the next. This will give you some idea:


At some point, we're going to go explore Tasmania. It's supposed to be an overnight trip on a boat. One of our books recommended renting an RV there, and driving around. We're not sure when we'll go there, but we're pretty sure this is the boat one takes:

(Colin thought the dark cloud you see here about the boat looked like the bottom of a giant ship.)

There was beach all along the part of the bay we walked on. It's pretty, and I'm sure it gets busy once the weather warms up.


Walk #2

Our second longish walk was around the city center. On that walk, we officially decided that Melbourne was, overall, an attractive city (we love New York, and it has some beautiful spots - but it's not generally a good-looking city). In what we've seen so far, it seems like a city where, at pretty much every stage, someone added just one bit of art. Even the street art is just that much nicer than it is in most places (and sometimes a lot nicer). And it really adds up.

The Yarra river runs through downtown, and there are a good amount of pedestrian walkways and bridges. The bridge pictured below used to be a railroad bridge which was turned into a pedestrian bridge. Along the side are metal sculptures representing the different phases of immigration. Then there are tall transparent plates for each of the major countries Australian immigrants came from, with a description of the reasons why they came to Australia, during which periods they arrived, how many immigrants there were, and how many descendants of the immigrants there are now.


We crossed the river, went through Federation Square (we'll have a post about that later), by the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (more on that later), and into East Melbourne. Really pretty. The more traditional houses looked like this:


Going a bit west, we went through the Fitzroy Gardens (which was very pretty and very lush! A nice respite in the city).

Not pictured: a couple skateboarders who were photographing each other. We think they took some pictures of us too, so we tried to look cool (also not pictured: us looking cool).

The park had a lot of open lawn, but a lot of artsy-cute touches. One was a miniature Tudor Village (not pictured). Another was a tree trunk that had been carved in 1931-32 by a children's book author, with faeries and animals (it is aptly called the "Fairies' Tree"):

The carving was dedicated both to children and to faeries.

Going northwest from the park on our way to the neighborhood of Fitzroy, we went by a big Fire Brigade building, with this mosaic on the side.

The idea seemed to be Prometheus giving fire to humans, with the good stuff coming out of fire on the left, and the bad stuff on the right. Appropriately enough for a fire brigade building, the right side extends farther than the left.

We then went by the large St. Patrick's Cathedral:

A large Anglican church and an old-ish looking synagogue were on the same street (not pictured).

We then headed east a bit, then, north, then west, then south. Then home on the 96 tram. This is the official safety sign for the trams:

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Additionally, there are a few food-related things we've started to become obsessed with:

1. Tim Tams. Tim Tams are a sort of chocolate-covered cookie. The real magic, though, is that you can bite off two corners and then use it like a straw for your coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. Then it melts... from the inside. That leaves you about 10 second to eat the increasingly gooey chocolate mess you're suddenly holding. It's at least as good as it sounds.

2. Masterchef Australia: A reality-TV cooking competition. They are currently in NYC , cooking and meeting with famous chefs, etc. Besides being entertaining (and yummy looking!) it has proven to be useful in helping our transition from NYC to Australia.

Whew. Yes - it was a lot to take in. We're still processing it.