10/06/04:

Sightseeing in Melbourne!

I have an embarrassing confession to make: The farthest I got from Melbourne during my trip was the Victoria Zoo. We didn’t actually make it to Phillip Island or the Great Ocean Road, to any of the excellent local wineries or the Healesville wildlife sanctuary. We were in the heart of the city and neither of us felt like driving, and so we spent our days in Melbourne itself. I like getting to know an area, and by the end of the week we were very familiar with downtown Melbourne.

So what did we see? Well, I’ve already discussed the alleys and supermarkets. It may seem silly, but this sort of thing fascinates me: the nature of urban development is as interesting to me as historical monuments, as it often gives me ideas for developing cities in games. Melbourne has an excellent public transport system, including a free train that circles the city center. That’s right, they’ve got national healthcare, free education (including college), free public transportation, and Vegemite in a Biskit! Of course, we’ve got all of that in the US too. What’s that? We don’t? We don’t have any of it? Well, we’re busy invading Iraq. I’m sure health care, education, and public transportation are the very next thing on our national list of priorities.

We began our sight-seeing by riding the ring train around the city. A few things popped out along the way:

A recruiting sign for the druids (but are they Wardens of the Wood or Children of Winter?)

This is actually in one of the Melbourne shopping malls, but I loved the look of it!

The ruins of an ancient library. Just around the corner you can see the ruins of the Statue of Liberty and a few ape soldiers riding horses.

About halfway around the city the recorded voice announced that we were passing Dockside Park and the Cow Up a Tree sculpture. Ellen and I immediately perked up. “Cow Up a Tree?” we said in unison. We hopped off the train, and indeed, there it was: Cow Up a Tree.

We decided that Bossy needed to have her picture taken up the tree, but it proved to be more difficult than expected – it was quite a tall tree! I tried tossing Bossy up the tree, but you can see how well that turned out.

When all hope seemed lost, a few Australians wandered by. They quickly realized the gravity of the situation and offered their services to get Bossy up in the tree. Here David Klingberg helps me with Bossy:

Success!

And here’s the full group: David, Ben, Graeme, and Belinda. Thanks, folks!

Next we went to Batman Park. Batman was the founder of Melbourne, and we were hoping to get a picture of a “Batman Park” sign. Unfortunately, the park was operating under a secret identity. While it was labelled “Batman Park” on the map, there were no identifying marks in the park itself.

We then took a trip up to the Melbourne observation deck. What do you think: is the top of the building in the foreground intentionally designed to look like a heart, or is it just a coincidence?

Continuing around the circle, we came to Federation Square, an intriguing area including the Museum of the Moving Image. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Next:  The Zoo!

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