If Melbourne has one downside it is its unpredictable weather. It can be blistering hot one day and frightfully cool and raining the next. Melbourne's summer almanacs are full of days well over 40C followed by days where the temperatures hover around 20C. Our first day in Melbourne was a bit like the latter. It was particularly cool but I do remember a brisk breeze and some gray skies. Coming from the baking interior, though, it did make quite the difference. I took the opportunity to show Isabella around the city and the neighbourhood.
Our fist stop was the St. Kilda waterfront. St. Kilda is an old neighbourhood of Melbourne, not too far from the city and has always been a bit of an urban getaway. When Melburnians attempt to escape the hottest summer days, they head down to St. Kilda. Melbourne doesn't have the beaches of Sydney so Melburnians make do with small rocky beaches on cold Port Phillip Bay. St. Kilda's beachfront, though, has been built up and there are parks, restaurants and an old pier.
Isabella and I walked along until we reached Luna Park, an amusement park with a clown's head entrance. This is actually one of a chain of Luna Parks and each one has a different clown face entrance. It's not very big and Isabella and I sort of walked around not entirely impressed. As it was coming to the end of the school holidays there were quite a few children running around. I'm sure it's fun when you're that young but seeing how small it is, it doesn't really attract my attention.
From Luna Park, we walked back along the water's edge but on a bike path we noticed some scale models of the planets. It turns out that there is a scale model of our solar system and the nearest star that stretches along the waterfront for a few kilometers towards the city. It really gives a great sense of the vastness of space. Each planet was to scale and while Jupiter and Saturn were quite large, the Earth and Mars were miniscule. The sun was very large indeed and what really impressed me was that the model included Proxima Centauri, the star closest to our solar system. It stood only a few meters from the model of the sun but the plaque explained that on this scale Proxima Centauri was 40 000 kilometers away meaning that you would have to go around the world to get the true sense of distance!
From St. Kilda we drove into the city and I showed Isabella around the Fitzroy Gardens, a sort of urban park with quite a few things to see in it. There are several fountains that are now playing again, thanks to the end of the drought. There's a part made of tiles donated by people with various messages and designs drawn on them. Also in the park is a greenhouse called the Conservatory that has examples of many Australian flowers and a very nice little bridge. The Fitzroy Gardens also contains Cook's Cottage, the home of James Cook, the famous explorer. IT was taken apart brick by brick and reassembled in Australia and thus claims to be Australia's "oldest" building. Not too far away is a model Tudor village donated by the people of Lambeth, England as thanks for the food they received from Victoria during World War 2. Beside that there is the Fairies' Tree, an old stump with painted fauna and fairies designed by a children's book writer.
With that, we returned to St. Kilda and I think I may have taken Isabella to one of the many cake shops on Acland Street. This area was once, perhaps even still is, home to a large Jewish population. On Acland Street, Jewish entrepreneurs opened several bakeries and cake shops. As you walk down you can't help but stare. The sweets entice you and you find yourself just craving one. Isabella and I had some delicious cake with her drinking a cappuccino, I think, and me a hot chocolate. I've been here so many times that they all just sort of blur together.
As evening fell, Isabella and I walked to the end of St. Kilda pier to see the Fairy, or Blue, Penguins that come into shore at that time. They've taken up residence among the rocks that form the breakwater to a small marina harbour. There is also a colony of water rats who, despite their name, are actually quite cute. Still, for cuteness, nothing beats the Fairy Penguins, except perhaps puffins but there weren't any around. Isabella and I watched the penguins, along with several other people as this is a well-known feature of St. Kilda. We returned to the apartment tired but ready for another day.
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