Melbourne without Australia Day

Canberra (Australia's capital) has large fireworks twice a year. New Year, and Skyfire. It's always held over the large central lake, and the riverside is always completely bustling with people on those nights. Now, Canberra population being peanuts compared to Melbourne, we would have expected something similar last night, but we were a bit surprised by how roomy the riverfront was last night. And the same kind of applies to walking through the CBD during the evening tonight. Maybe people are taking a bit of an extended weekend, or there's something that we don't know about, but somehow the city feels a bit more empty than we expected.

Our plan for the day was to go past a historical car museum, get some breakfast and enjoy the CBD. This fell through pretty quickly when the museum was closed until next week. This is the second time that we've been in Melbourne, and both times the place has been closed and due to be reopened soon. sigh

But at least the rest of the plan worked fairly nicely. Having visited Japan, we believe that where there is a train station, there is civilization. Probably the only place where the extra noise from the trains is something I regard as a positive noise. And with civilization came breakfast possibilities. Item two of todays plan was a success.

Which leads us to item number three, enjoy the CBD. 25km of walking gave us enough possibilities to enjoy some sections of the CBD multiple times, but double digit temperatures starting with at least a two would have given even more enjoyment possibilities. Nevertheless, the quirky glass colors, odd modern art and river front all provide a very relaxing environment.