Melbourne
 
Morning started overcast and cold.  Drove up to the city and had breakfast in a little restaurant across from Luna Amusement Park that had a very welcome fire going at 9:30 AM.  After breakfast we checked out the local artist stalls before heading to downtown.  There were a lot of people walking along the stalls even in this cold weather.  Kathy could not resist some paintings by Marek Wilinski.  When we drove into Melbourne we found it is laid out in wide tree lined, rectangular streets.  We visited the local Opal Museum to see how opals are made.  Then we spent a couple of hours in the new Pissarro exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria.  Pissarro was one of the first impressionist painters in the 1874-1895 period.  Fortunately the museum was not selling Pissarros.  By 3 PM, it was starting to rain so we gave up on the predicted sunny Sunday for Melbourne and walked over to the Melbourne Information Center to get directions to Adelaide. The picture on the right shows Melbourne from the Art Center.  The buildings with colored swatches surround the city center meeting place that was full of people watching a concert.  The Information Center is the dark building on the left.  The guide we spoke to suggested that we go on to Ballart for the night rather than staying in Melbourne since Ballart is less than 1.5 hours drive away.  We took his advise and are now in a warmer Ballart.
Sunday, April 9, 2006