Day 56: 20231118 Saturday, November 18, 2023- Melbourne, Victoria Australia
The ship slipped into Melbourne harbor during the early morning. In Melbourne, the ship docked at the Port of Melbourne Wharf at Hobson’s Bay, which is about a 15-20 minute drive from the central business district. There is a light rail station just a 5 minute walk from the pier, and when cruise ships are in town, the city operates a city express shuttle bus from the pier into the central business district (CBD). Melbourne has a free travel zone in the CBD served by buses, trams and rail, but that zone starts about 3-4 miles from the pier. It cost AUD$16 each for an all day pass to ride the public transit. We rode the express shuttle into town and took the light rail back to the ship, and it proved to be a good value even just for the 3-4 mile stretch between the port and the start of the free ride zone.
The weather was perfect for touring the city with temperatures in the upper 60’s in the morning and peaking in the lower 70’s in the afternoon with a light breeze. Melbourne has a ton of sights and things to do that are all pretty accessible on foot and by using the public transit. When we visited in 2017, we had toured the Fitzroy Gardens and Royal Botanical Gardens which were south of the CBD. We had also taken an excursion from our hotel to the Great Ocean Road. So on this visit, we just stayed within the CBD.
We crossed the Yarra river and watched some racing shells competing below. At the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) we wandered through the art exhibits which include some international art, but there are several galleries that highlight local Australian art. It is interesting to see Australian impressionists and cubists in league with their international colleagues despite the distances and difficulty in travel. Art can somehow overcome these mere physical obstacles.
From there we crossed back over the Yarra river again to visit the NGV annex in Federation Square, where they house most of their Aboriginal art and local artist collections. There are so many different art forms and expressions that it can be mind bending as well as expanding.
The State Library of Victoria was also in interesting stop. They had a traveling exhibit of Hebrew texts that required a security check to get in, but all the museums we visited had free admission. Among the Hebrew texts was a book of magic spells including one that could magic you out of a prison cell. The Library has a very impressive dome room with reading gallery, and another room that was also a bit like the Hogwarts great hall, but more art deco than gothic.
As lunch time came around, we found our way back to China Town where we found the Shanghai Street dumpling shop where we had previously discovered Xiao long bao, and treated ourselves to an order of them and pan fried pork and shrimp dumplings.
After lunch, Ben got a hair cut and beard trim at a barber shop in the CBD. This trip has been long enough that a mid trip hair cut was inevitable. Getting it cut in Melbourne was more expensive than Great Clips back home, but with the exchange rate and no tipping in Australia, it didn’t end up that bad. Getting a hair cut on the ship would have easily been twice as expensive. The barber had an interesting past, having arrived in Australia as a refugee from Iraq in 2008. He had fled on a fishing boat so he had no interest in ever setting foot on a boat again, but was fascinated by our history of having crossed the Pacific to get to Australia and in our circumnavigation of his adopted continent.
From there we hopped on the antique circle tram tour which circles the CBD and announces stops of tourist interest. But these old trams are quite noisy so you can barely hear the announcements and narratives. We did manage to get around the part of the city that we had missed last time though, and then took the regular trams to get back to the ship.
After dinner, a pair of new entertainers who call themselves Scaried, Weird Little Guys put on a show in the Universe lounge that was full of musical parodies that was quite entertaining. They did mashups where they did the lyrics from one song to the melody of the other, and the results were both funny and fascinating. One was a mash up between ABBA’s Fernando and the Theme to Raw Hide. They apparently have been on Australian television a bit, and were well worth seeing.
Tomorrow we arrive in Burnie, in northwestern Tasmania. Our excursion doesn’t meet until 11am so we won’t have to struggle to get out of bed in time. We’ll hit the sack early today after walking a good bit all over Melbourne today.
