A Good Friday - March 25

We have returned to Melbourne (Mel'-bn, not Mel-born'). Last time we were here, about 10 days ago, it was Labour Day. Today is Good Friday. It's a public holiday here and almost everything is closed. There are many things that are ONLY closed on two days - Christmas and Good Friday. 

I don't think Australians, as a group, are particularly religious.  You don't see a lot of churches here. But once a holiday, always a holiday, I suppose.

It started out cool and cloudy. We arrived around 7:30 am and could see hot air balloons across the bay. By the time we were ready to go ashore the sun was out and things were looking up.

We didn't have much interest in any of the ship's tours, and almost everything in town was closed, but we figured we'd take a nice walk through the Royal Botanic Gardens. That turned out to be a really good choice.

The shuttle bus from the port dropped us off across the street from the Queen Victoria Gardens, which we thought was the RBG. We strolled through the QVG and were delighted with how beautiful and pleasant it was. The obligatory statue of Queen Victoria dominated a tiny island. I think the style of this garden is called Romantic. The look is a planned natural look, just a little bit wild. It was very relaxing - shady, surprisingly quiet, with a pleasant, woodsy odor.

A play sculpture for children

I wonder if this was installed during the 1958(?) Olympics in Melbourne 

We came to the end of QVG and the beginning of the King's Domain. This was a park full of scattered war memorials.

Here is a memorial to Australian-Turkish friendship. Think Gallipoli.

A prominent statue showed Edward VII in military dress on a horse. They even had one statue of a woman. She was a nurse who was killed during WW I.

Finally, at the far end of the KD we came to the Shrine of Remembrance. A little over the top, but then ANZAC suffered more casualties as a percentage of total population than any other country that fought in WW I.

Can you find the face? We didn't notice it until looking at the photo. You can't see it from close up.

A hop, skip, and a jump away from the Shrine of Remembrance we came to one of the gates to Royal Botanic Garden.

The RBG was extremely well done, presenting different types of landscapes representing different parts of Australia. Everything from desert to forest.

How to be a topiary

The original main office

The large meandering paths were interspersed with inviting small paths where you could experience the various ecosystems.

Hardwood forest - one of 700 species (varieties?) of Eucalyptus

 If a tree falls in the forest, you should leave it be - to illustrate how the gap allows extra sunlight to reach the forest floor where the light stimulates new growth. an you tell that I am in the middle of a city of 4.2 million?

Who are you?

Well, I don't think I like their tone of voice

We arrived at another gate and ducked out of the RBG to purchase life-saving snacks at a little convenience store before returning to explore the RBG. A gorgeous cactus garden was located along the sides of a simulated volcano. This reminded us very much of a cactus garden we saw in the Canary Islands inside a real caldera.

We continued past some other nice areas. A pond, and estuarine ecosystem, 

Connecting back to the other side of the QVG, we followed the shoreline of the Yarra River.

This is part of a large sports complex.

Our self-guided excursion was extremely enjoyable. We both thought that Melbourne's Botanic Garden was far superior to those we had seen in Sydney and Auckland.

As we sailed away, I thought about the differences between Sydney and Melbourne. I will try to write a little about that tomorrow.

For our evening entertainment Kaitlyn Carr brought us the Spirit of the Glen's with Celtic flutes and singing. She is good, but she overdoes the Scottish schtick and says "wee" all the time.