A trip to Melbourne

This week started with a spectacular sunset (again)... it was windy, some clouds, and cool with big waves crashing against the shore, the kind of drama that makes for good sunsets! (Remember to click on images to get the big picture!). Tuesday I went to the climbing gym again, quite a work out, forever challenging. Thursday I flew to Melbourne for meetings at SKM's office there; my first trip away from South Australia and Adelaide. The people were friendly and things went well. I had hoped to meet up with my parents who arrived in Australia (Sydney) on Tuesday. I had confusion over their itinerary and thought they would be in Melbourne when I got there, but they weren't. I further confused the itinerary that I would leave before they arrived (and informed them of this). When I figured out there was actually an overlap, it was too late to let them know: they were already on a train for Melbourne. I surprised them by meeting them at the train... that worked well. We spent Friday evening and the best part of today together touring around Melbourne. Melbourne is a much bigger city than Adelaide; there are about 4 million people there, so it is roughly the size of Philadelphia and has similar urban qualities. In the two days I was tyhere I barely scratched the surface. It does have a lot of interesting alleyways, cafes, restaurants and a big market. The tram system is fine, but has older trams. It was easy enough to get around and everyone was friendly. Below is a photo log from tooling around:

     

We ended the visit at a little bistro on an alley with zuppa and panini... pretty good, then we wandered back toward Mom and Dad's hotel. As we approached the hotel, there was some very beautiful music in the air. It was a woman singing opera as a busker. She had an incredible voice and I had to fight back tears because the sound was so emotional (akin to a tear-jerker movie!). There was a fairly large and appreciative crowd gathered and paying attention. When she went on break we bought cd's from her husband who was working the sound. Below are some pictures I took while listening to her sing. Her name is Gabriel Sage and she has a blog where you can see video of her singing and read more about her experience (http://gabrielsage.blogspot.com/). Check it out!