Sightseeing in Melbourne

Hey Y'All!

We've spent all of today packing in the sights that we missed out on Saturday. We set out about 12 and got the tram to the Shrine of Rememberance, a collection of War Memorials for the first and second world wars, and all the post WW2 conflicts. Inside the sanctuary of the WW1 Memorial they have a hole in the roof, and on 11 November every year a ray of sunlight shines through it and hits a shrine in the middle of the floor which bears the inscription "Greater Love Hath No Man". At exactly 11am the word 'love' is illuminated by the ray of light. It's quite remarkable really. They did a simulation for us which moved me to tears, probably because I'd just spent the last few minutes looking at all the books filled with names of enlisted men and women, no rank detailed, so they were all equal. The shrine itself was designed with a wall around it, so that you have to bow your head to read the inscription, which was quite appropriate. It was all very humbling.

Next we sat and had some dinner by the Yarra River, watching some jammy Australian kids having a rowing PE lesson on the river! Walking back through the city I picked my photos up, which are all quite dark. I'm not having much luck with my photos really! Then we nipped into Big W and bought some warm clothes - after last night's freeze-fest at the penguin parade I'm not taking any more chances!

Then we had a wander up to the Mebourne Old Gaol, Melbourne's oldest prison, and where they remanded and executed the legendary Hero/Villain Ned Kelly. It was mighty spooky, reading all the stories about various criminals and their crimes, seeing the tiny cells, looking at the punishment methods, and the mysterious Cell 17, where a woman inmate is meant to have commited suicide and where various tour guides and visitors have had ghostly experiences. They also had loads of 'death masks' - plaster cast heads of executed criminals - which was really disturbing. They used to make them for phrenology purposes, to figure out why this person turned to crime. Weird.

Afterwards we walked up to Queen Victoria Market, but it actually closed at 2pm today, which, unfortunately, we had no knowledge of. So here we are on the internet!

I wanted to go and see 'Be Cool' at the cinema tonight, but I don't think we've got time now as it starts in 45 minutes! So I guess the remainder of the evening will be spent making tea and chilling out, unless Becky and Jenny want to meet up for a last drink before we leave!

So that's all for now, I'll probably post again from Jinabyne and let you know how our extreme sport getaway goes! From there we'll be stopping in Canberra for a day and then it's back on to Sydney. It's strange to think that two weeks today we'll be in Japan, and two weeks tomorrow we'll be home. How scary is that!