Sunday, March 19, 2006
Melbourne March 17
Today we flew from Sydney to Melbourne. Our views of the countryside were limited but we saw some magnificent sandstone sea cliffs just southwest of Botany Bay and great expanses of fairly flat bushland (rather savannah-like in appearance, with scattered ranches or farms). Upon arrival in Melbourne we felt an immediate change in temperature: Melbourne warms up nicely during the day but in the evenings and early mornings temperatures fall into the mid-fifties. We’d sorn shorts, short-sleeved shirts, and sandles day and night in Sidney, but in Melbourne we’re wearing long pants and, in the evenings, light coats. We took a shuttle to the Kingsgate Hotel, an older modest establishment in the city center. It was the only hotel with an available room, due to the throngs of international tourists who are staying in the city for the two weeks of the Commonwealth Games, a track-and-field, soccer, swimming, rugby, and cricket competition involving current and former nations of the British Commonwealth. The Kingsgate is the sort of place in which the openingn and closing of every door reverberates throughout the entire 6-story hotel, as does much of the plumbing activity. The bed was fine and the room was clean, but, as with the much nice Rendezvous Stafford in Sydney, internet access is very limited and it isn’t practical to post many image files.
Melbourne is a sprawling city, just a bit smaller than Sydney (3 million versus 4 million) and it’s also a port city (Port Phillip is a very large bay opening to the south to Bass Strait on the Southern Ocean). The downtown area and most of the city’s highrise offices, hotels, and athletic and cultural facilities are concentrated along the banks of Yarra River. Our hotel was just a short walk from Federation Square (architectural style: cute anarchist) and Flinder Station (a grand Victorian edifice). Just across the river from these sites, on the south bank, is the thriving commercial Southgate shopping and dining area, along extensive parklands and a magnificent botanical garden. Alexandra Garden was the center of the two-week-long Melbourne Festival, which featured lots of free outdoor entertainment and many free cultural events concurrent with the Commonwealth Games. It was swarming with people and performers; many events occurred simultaneously in neighboring venues, the music from one site sometimes intruding on the next, but the whole enterprise was marked by a very positive spirit, orderly crowds, a noticeable absence of drunkenness or rowdiness, more than sufficient numbers of public restrooms, and ample advice from police and a vast network of well organized volunteers. In Alexandra Garden we watched a Canadian drumming group; ate dinner; watched a troup of talented young Australian circus acrobats in a presentation titled “Love Happens,” and then walked to the Myer Music Shell, where we listened to South African singer Marian Makeba (she’s really lost her voice but her band was fabulous). Afterwards we walked back along the river to view the nightly fish/fountain/light show. In the middle of the river are 70 large (about 15 feet long) metallic fish statues representing all the countries of the Commonwealth. Each fish bears several computer-driven water fountains and a set of coloured lights. Enormous loud-speakers play music while the waters dance and the lights change. The event is at once enormously corny but also very appealing.
Melbourne is a sprawling city, just a bit smaller than Sydney (3 million versus 4 million) and it’s also a port city (Port Phillip is a very large bay opening to the south to Bass Strait on the Southern Ocean). The downtown area and most of the city’s highrise offices, hotels, and athletic and cultural facilities are concentrated along the banks of Yarra River. Our hotel was just a short walk from Federation Square (architectural style: cute anarchist) and Flinder Station (a grand Victorian edifice). Just across the river from these sites, on the south bank, is the thriving commercial Southgate shopping and dining area, along extensive parklands and a magnificent botanical garden. Alexandra Garden was the center of the two-week-long Melbourne Festival, which featured lots of free outdoor entertainment and many free cultural events concurrent with the Commonwealth Games. It was swarming with people and performers; many events occurred simultaneously in neighboring venues, the music from one site sometimes intruding on the next, but the whole enterprise was marked by a very positive spirit, orderly crowds, a noticeable absence of drunkenness or rowdiness, more than sufficient numbers of public restrooms, and ample advice from police and a vast network of well organized volunteers. In Alexandra Garden we watched a Canadian drumming group; ate dinner; watched a troup of talented young Australian circus acrobats in a presentation titled “Love Happens,” and then walked to the Myer Music Shell, where we listened to South African singer Marian Makeba (she’s really lost her voice but her band was fabulous). Afterwards we walked back along the river to view the nightly fish/fountain/light show. In the middle of the river are 70 large (about 15 feet long) metallic fish statues representing all the countries of the Commonwealth. Each fish bears several computer-driven water fountains and a set of coloured lights. Enormous loud-speakers play music while the waters dance and the lights change. The event is at once enormously corny but also very appealing.
# posted by Ken @ 4:42 AM 
