Meeting with the 12 apostels.

Photo: Coffee lounge in the Docklands, Melbourne, with a plant wall !

Photo: Well, as the 11th apostel has fallen, I play the replacement :-)

Good day! Today my host Jurg has got the day off at work and proposed to drive along the Great Ocean road. That was really very kind of him to sacrifies his day off for me!

It is a wonderfull trip through the wild nature of the southern part of Australia. First we pass a kind of sea and small beach landscape, then we enter a lush green Irish looking grass landscape on hills, then we went through the rainforest bush with Eucalyptus trees and eventually, after some 6 hours of driving (with stops included), we arrive on the beautiful scenery of the 12 apostels. The landscape is comparable to the West coast of Ireland, and has awesome steep cliffs into the sea. There are some 12 freestanding rocks left in the ocean itself, although I could only count 7. Apparently one apostel already has fallen, so there are actually only 11 left. Remarkable is that the place was not at all touristic until this nature phenomenom was called "the 12 apostels". People are really weird. Along the way, we pass villages like Lorne and The Apollo Bay and Torquay, etc... mother look it up on google earth :-)

Then we drove back all the way through all these little towns and villages along the road, and finally got into a nice restaurant in the Docklands of Melbourne. That is a newly build part with very modern architecture, and becoming the new hot spot of Melbie. In one of the coffee lounge halls of the buildings I thought (seen from a distance) that they had put up an enormous poster of rainforest plants behing the bar and counter. When we got closer, I saw that they were actually real plants :-0

Pinguins in town !

Photo: The pink thing on the left is actually a very fancy fish :-) :-)

Photo: Cleaning of the windows of the Ian Potter arts centre (what's in a name) must not be that easy, give me the Glassex spray !

Photo: Cute pinguin chick looking angry to my camera flash ;-o

Hello everybody, thanks for your funny comments :-).Today was not the best day to go to the aquarium... apparently it was a school holiday, so the place was crowded with hundreds of screaming, yelling and running little children *zucht*. The aquarium houses some very nice awkward fishes, but is not that great as the one in Sydney. It is a bit old and tacky and it could use a lift. Also it was quite expensive, about 28 dollars. Anyway, it is quite cold today here, some 10 degrees but that is good to adapt to the weather when I will be back in BE and NL :-)

In the afternoon I visit the art galleries of the Ian Potter centre in the Federation Square. There is some fine art, but the real great thing is the building itself. I would not like to clean this windows :-)

Then weather clears out a bit in the afternoon. Indeed Melbie has four seasons in just one day. I take a quick walk in the botanical gardens. They close at 6pm and it is already 5pm when I arrive there. The gardens are lovely but again the Sydney counterpart is nicer I think.

Because it is close to sun set, I decide to go back to St Kilda quay. Jurg told me that after sunset, there is a whole colony of pinguins which is living overthere, and the chicks come out then. I had to wait for about an hour in the dark, but indeed eventually they started to make a lot of noise, and came out of their hideabouts. They are very cute and although I had no idea of pointing my camera in the dark, I was able to shoot some nice pictures of them... sorry pinguins for the flashes :-0

I had also to explain to a gentlemen in a suit that actually he was looking at a waterrat instead of a pinguin, though he found it cute as well .... laugh

Eureka ! Standing on glass 285m above the ground.

Photo: One of the massive halls in the NGV building.

Photo: The Eureka building.

Hello hello, I started the day off quite late. An unexpected problem is that my knees are becoming wrecked. I should be careful with my *kruisbanden*. I estimate that I must have been walking for about 20 km per day, 22 days on a row now ... So we take it easy the coming days.

By lunch time I arrived at the cafetaria of the NGV, the National art Gallery of Victoria. During the lunch I got into a conversation with a lady who had lived in London for 5 years. She and her husband even invited me to stay over at the countryside that afternoon and night, but the timing was a bit bad because her children were coming over to spend holidays. Anyway, I got their contact info if I return here... Australian people are really really nice ! And another lady passed her journal to me also ...

The NGV building is quite amazing architecture. There are glass walls with water running over it, and the size of the building is gigantic. Although they are no match for Europe's galleries, they have quite a fine art collection.

In the late afternoon I go to the highest building in the southern hemisphere: The Eureka building. Some facts: it's over 300 meters (I should look up how tall exactly), 450 people worked on it daily to build it, it swings up to 3 meters at the top, it has 40 000 square meters of glass of which some is gold plated at the top. A massive water tank at the top keeps it into balance... The lift which travels at 9 m/s takes us to the 88th floor in just about 35 seconds. A nice tourist attraction is the Edge. Basically you enter a clear glass cube together with 7 other people, and they roll the thing outside the building 285 meter above ground level. Well, it is a bit of an adrenaline shot :-)

Melbourne is mindblowing

Photo: The atrium of the casino, the ceiling is full of crystal, everything in marble and the stairs flanked by waterfalls.

Photo: the casino complex is about 4 blocks wide, you can only see 2 on this picture, besides the flank of the tower on the left.

Photo: the casino tower itself, the complex houses a hotel, tons of restaurants and outdoor roof gardens, top level tennis courts, spa, etc etc ...

Photo: The inside of the Melbourne Cricket Ground stadion. Yesterday some 100 000 people were here to watch the football Grand Final, everything is yet cleaned up again the day after !!!

Photo: the MCG from the outside. The infrastructure is massive to bring all the people overhere.

Photo: The view on the CBD from south bank.

Okay guys, this morning I just do my laundry and ironing. I keep words short: today I visited the Melbourne Cricket Ground or MGC, where they play the Australian Open tennis, the cricket and yesterday the football Grand Final. It is amazing that yesterday there were here 100 000 people and really *everything* has been cleaned up just the day after !!! amazing. PS we went on the guided tour also into the showers and change rooms hihi...

After the tour, I do a good walk around the South bank of Melbie, and then get in the casino in the night. I did not loose a penny because I did not play. It is amazing that 95% percent of the people inside the casino is Asian. And more amazing is how fast people drain there money, they just put like 300 euro on the table like it is nothing... it is totally crazy. The casino spans some 5 blocks.. and has been the biggest casino in the world for a while..... The Bellagio in the film Oceans 11 is nothing compared to this thing here... The entrance oval building has a 3 story heigh atrium with the ceiling full of crystal... The main marble stairs in the marble hall is flanked on both sides with a waterfall.. say no more. Have a look at the photos.

Discovering St. Kilda

Photo: Federation Square: some like it some not, modern architecture !

Photo: view on the Melbourne skyline from St. Kilda beach. The biggest tower is the Eureka, which I will visit later.

Good day ! As this will be the last day of very good weather in Melbourne, we are having 30 degrees, I decide to stay along the St Kilda beach and to make the same tour as yesterday night. Well also to take some pictures... Today it is less crowded, and I walk up the peer to have a nice coffee. Unfortunately the weather turns a bit chilly around lunch time, so we forget about laying on the beach to get a sun-tan. It is a common saying in Australia that Melbourne has four seasons in just one day.

So I decide to change plans and to find out how the trams work here to get to Federation square again. I arrive in CBD and then have a nice afternoon walk to the Carlton gardens. At Fed square there are thousands of people to follow the football Grand Final at 14:30

I skip a walk to South bank, because that is for tomorrow afternoon.

I return after sunset to the St Kilda beach, to dine out in Ackland street, and to have a nice evening walk to see the lit skyline of Melbourne. I heard saying that there is also a Penguin colony overhere and you can see them at the peer after sun set. I will try that out later.

Flight to Melbourne !

Photo: St Kilda beach promenade and peer.

Photo: The oldest Luna Park in the world. The roller coaster is still completely in wood ! The park dates back from the 20's and must have been very modern then !

Yippie, today we fly to Melbourne ! I was becoming a bit bored with Brisbane anyway. The flight takes about 2 hours and I arrive in Melbourne at about 14:30. Luckily Jurg Gehrig my host is there to pick me up from the airport. Again we had clear skies, so I could see how big and outstretched Melbourne is really. Saint Kilda is on the other side of the city, and it takes about an hour driving to get there.

St. Kilda is known to be a more culture, alternative and gay venue. As it is one of the only beaches close to town, they renovated the promenade and peer. They did really a good job with wood platforms. I am actually staying in St Kilda East, some blocks futher away.

Jurg takes me on a afternoon walk to the beach, since it is his day off in the week. Distances here are enormous. To walk just two blocks it takes about half an hour ! Luckily there are trains and trams into the city but not after 00:00. We walk through St Kilda East to the beach. It is a refurbished promenade and actually it is really crowded because the Grand Final of the Ozzie football is in the centre tomorrow. Melbourne is full of beautiful men, you really don't know where to look first...

We get a coffee together at the St Kilda peer, with a lovely view on the skyline of Melbourne. Then we take the tram into the city centre and we get of at Federation Square, which is more or less the heart of the city. It is packed with people for the grand final between two Melbourne football teams : the cats and the hawks.

We then walk further down to the South bank, which is really GREAT ! Finally we even get into the casina, a marble palace, it surprises me that you just can walk in... The hall is fabulous to say the least, I will come back here later and take some pictures as I forgot totake my camera with me.

Back in St Kilda, we pass the dining and shopping streets and we also get a nice view on the Theathre, and the oldest Luna park in the world !

Visit of Brisbane Manly

Photo: The Manly Harbour in Brisbane is quite big, but no nice beaches here !

Photo: Queen street is very busy and cosy with shopping and dining people.

The last day in Brisbane today ! I go with Manuel to his work in CBD, and then I get myself a good strawberry muffing and coffee. I spend most of the morning in the internet cafe, to update some things and to see what is going on in Belgium and the stock market.

As I am hungry again, I take a wonderful Sushi box. Prices in Brisbane are much lower ! For the same foodbox I only pay here 10AUD (about 6 Euro) instead of 15 AUD in Sydney... Then I take the train to Manly. It is quite a trip because the train has to follow the banks of the river, until we get to the coastline. It takes about 1 hour to get there, and about 10 minutes walk to the harbour, which is very big. My instinct leads me to the East Coast Marina cafe, which was recommended by Manuel for its very fine food. Indeed the sardines were very tastful !

There I also find a map of the neighbourhood, and I see that I went the wrong way to find the beach. The beach there is not a big deal and artificial. Nobody is there. It is more a -slik en schorre- landscape, with a muddy look. Therefore I decide to take a an hour walk along the coastline. Finally I reach some kind of concrete very big seawater pool with loads of children. Luckily it is very warm but also very windy.

I go back after 16h, (sunset) to do some window shopping in Queen street. Louis Vuitton has an enormous store there on the corner. Australians are very fond of European brands !