Four Seasons in a Day

We started our day walking to near by Fitzroy park to do some background work on a couple of caches at a miniature Tudor village and a couple of statues.....it started out sunny, then teamed down rain and then the sun came out again but was chilly.  We then went to Little Bourke St. to see the Chinese New Year festivities....all of a sudden the skies opened up again for about 5 minutes! And the sun came out.  We then started down the hill to Federation street,  stopping along the way to look at an opal store....hmmmm.  
At Federation Square we separated as I (Pam) was meeting up with Curt and Natasha for the afternoon and Carol went exploring on her own.  


Melbourne House



Curt & Natasha

 Curt and Natasha and I went by train to the Abbotsford Convent...where they have a Convent, Church, Hospital, gardens, a bakery and a restaurant....where we had lunch....all vegetarian and pay by donation.  The place was packed with people and the food was delicious.  We walked the gardens (and found a cache) we left and headed to Natasha's aunt's house for a visit and some tea.  Then off we went walking toward the trains, stopping for dinner for a most delicious Moroccan dinner. I arrived back at the hotel just before 8:00....I must have walked about 10 km today!   I love the houses around here....brick and wrought iron.  They keep saying that Australia is a new country but these houses were built in the mid 1800's before anything in Vancouver! 

Carol set off for the open air artists market in the Arts district.  It was an interesting collection of artisans selling their own products.  A vast selection of goods from all over the Victoria area.  I decided to head to the Docklands area via the south shore.  Walked along the Yarra river walk past the casino which was packed and there were crowds of people everywhere.  Once I got to the convention centre at Docklands, the wind was so strong I decided to head back toward the city.  Wandered along the streets to Southern Cross Station where I picked up train information to Geelong.  We will pick up a car in Geelong which is about half an hour by train west of here, rather than trying to navigate our way out of Melbourne in traffic. 

Tried to find a fabric store that I was told about by one of the craftspersons, but no luck.  As the cool wind was still blowing, I popped in and out of many of the small stores and the two huge department stores--David Jones and Meyers.  They are huge, 5 floors minimum, many store clerks to help serve, escalators that look down on the floors below and the prices to go with this service!!  Enjoyed just browsing and observing the crowds which were everywhere.

At lunch I found a patisserie that served lamb and rosemary pot pies--yummmmmy!  Hopped aboard the free tram headed to our hotel as far as I could and walked the rest.  A most enjoyable adventure.   

The photos below are from an Aboriginal Carving Tree in the park close to our hotel.  The last one is looking toward our hotel from town.  The brown building left of centre is one block from our hotel and the stadium on the right is the Melbourne Cricket Grounds which holds 100,000 people.

Carving from Aboriginal Tree

Hotel and Cricket Arena

Carving in the Fairy Tree