Video Games and Napoleon Bonaparte

First stop today was the Game Masters Exhibition at the ACMI. Very good except for one thing, I wasn’t allowed to take pictures.  Then it was on to the Napoleon exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. I wasn’t planning on getting quite so much culture today, but they had a deal on the tickets.

I think these letters are actually larger than the great man himself..

You know you’ve made it when they reproduce you in bronze….

The exhibition was really good. The thing I learnt most from it was how little I know about French history. But it does look very interesting.

Trams with profound questions.

Once we had got our fill of culture we went for a wander around town.

Melbourne skyline

There were some really nice coffee shops on this street, I’d love to have been in town long enough to try all of them.

Shopping centre architecture

An umbrella display, slightly processed..

More Melbourne Culture. And watches.

Today we caught a tram to the Docklands part of Melbourne. They had a Roman Exhibition that looked interesting.

The whole thing was inside an enormous tent, which we loitered in for a while. Lots of Roman technology that you could play with, which was fun.

Then we went on to the harbour area, where you can take quite nice pictures.

After lunch we went over to Victoria Market, which has loads of stalls selling mostly tasteful merchandise.

Then we staggered back for the evening.

The view from our window gets even nicer at night.

Melbourne Museum Monday

This is the view from the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, a very imposing place that we didn’t get round to visiting.

When we go travelling we always like to take in the local museums and try to acquire a bit more culture (which might be a lost cause in my case). Today it was the turn of the Melbourne Museum.

This was ace. There was a superb exhibit on how the brain works. It turns out to be quite complicated. Next to the museum is the Melbourne Imax cinema. On the way out we bought tickets for the Batman movie that comes out on Friday. To superheroes in one week, both on Imax. Can’t be bad.

Melbourne Sunday

This is Flinders Street Station in Melbourne. It says so on the front.

Today we started our first full day in Melbourne. Lovely place. Has trams and everything. At the moment it looks like it is to Sydney what Boston is to New York.

But with more graffiti, which makes it a bit like Seattle too.

This is Federation Square. They have the Australian Centre for the Moving Image here, which has a fantastic exhibition all about the origins of modern mass entertainment. It even has an exhibit for Skippy.  There is also an interesting looking Game Masters exhibition. Perhaps we’ll take a look at that later.  No, we’ll definitely take a look at that later…

After lunch we went down to St. Kilda, which is down by the beach side. Every Sunday they have booths selling crafty bits and bobs, which were fun.

This is the entrance to Luna Park.

This is the main street in St. Kilda, given a very mild HDR treatment...

I just love what they did with this place.

The weather was very kind, but one thing I have noticed is just how fast it can change from bright blue skies to grey.

To this, complete with hardy swimmer.

Anyhoo, after a good walk round and another ride on the trams we were ready to turn in. Jetlag to Australia is the worst I’ve ever experienced. The day is completely inverted and there is no way to ease yourself into it gently. After well over a week we are still waking up at odd hours and feeling exhausted at 8:00 at night. But we are not letting it stop us have a great time. More fun tomorrow.

Hello Melbourne

This is the view from the hotel room. Not too shabby.

Today we headed out of Sydney towards Melbourne. People were telling us that “Melbourne is really cold and dismal in winter”. Australians don’t know what winter is. Winter is when water turns solid and you can see your breath. Winter is when it gets dark at four in the afternoon. Winter is properly cold. What Australians have is “Winter Lite”, where it gets dark a bit earlier and sometimes you have to wear a jumper. Or, was we call it in the UK, September.

Really looking forward to spending a bit of time exploring the city tomorrow.