Melbourne - We're Here!

Yesterday we flew into Melbourne and began checking it out today. We're actually staying in an AirBnB in Port Melbourne close to where cruise ships dock. It's a cute little suburb of the main city.

To get into the city, we DID NOT drive! Nope, we're doing good so far and just don't want to ruin it. They have this thing here called a hook turn. I'm not sure I could describe it so that any of you all could understand, but I got the opportunity to be at an intersection for a bit where they had one. It's kind of like veering left to turn right, but cars are passing you on the right. Yea, not EVEN going to try to go there............ Instead we bought a tram pass and set off for the day. I have always loved public transportation in NYC and this is similar.

First up was to take a Free Walking Tour. If you have never done this when you're travelling, we have always enjoyed these. Just check the web to see if they're offering it where you are going. It is very informative and worthwhile. We try to do that in the beginning because we usually learn about places we go back to later. Today our tour was about 3 hours long. We were taken all around downtown Melbourne. Here's just some of the skyline.

Saw some of the pretty side of Melbourne too.

After the tour we went to the art museum. The guide had told us that a Picasso worth $1.6 million was displayed. There's a backstory to that in as far as it was actually stolen 1 month after it was first put on display. Whoever did it got away with it because it was returned anonymously. We've been to the Louvre and others, but still don't see what in the world makes a painting worth that gosh darn much! Feel free to comment to this blog post, if you get it!

I was amazed at how much street art there is here! Our tour took us down several different alleys where it is plentiful.

Unfortunately a beautiful piece of art gets tagged over by just plain old graffiti. She said that yesterday the woman's face at the bottom was pristine. 

We visited the Chinatown section to get dumplings at a place she suggested. We got 22 dumplings for $17! AND where I demonstrated once again that I cannot use chopsticks.........womp womp

We ended our day by riding the free City Circle Tram. It takes you on a loop around the city with audio explanations.