Day 78: Yarra River, Melbourne

I met up with 2 people that I met on a tour in Alice Springs (and fortunately they didn't prove to be serial killers).  They picked me up at my apartment -- and we meant to go on a river boat on the Yarra River to Williamstown -- but ended up on the wrong boat (actually the wrong boat company) and went for a 1 hour river boat ride in the opposite direction.  After we got off that boat -- we bought tickets on the right boat and journeyed over to Williamstown.  By the time we got there it was 1:30pm -- so we had lunch at a nice restaurant right on the river -- walked around a bit -- and then got back on a boat to take us back to town.  After that, we drove to a part of St. Kilda that I didn't go to yesterday -- walked around a bit -- stopped in a cake shop and had some cake & coffee -- and then they dropped me off back at my apartment.

Very nice people -- Jody is a Melburnite and Pam is from California (a coroner -- interesting work stories!).  They are both divorced (multiple times) with grown kids -- they met in China 10+ years ago on a volunteer tour -- and have been friends since then.

The Yarra River flows through Melbourne.  Water is kind of an ugly brown color -- lots of mud & silt + it's pretty polluted.  Both boat rides were very pretty (especially the first one) -- lots of interesting bridges and other sites.

Williamstown was interesting looking -- but we didn't really spend much time there -- I might go back to check it out.

Weather:  partly cloudy, couple minutes of rain, 58 - 72F
Miles Walked:  2.7

Pic Notes:

• 1:  Flinders Street Rail Station -- built in the early 1900s, serves the entire metropolitan rail network, due to be renovated
• 2:  Melbourne Arts Centre on the far side of the bridge.  The metal webbing of the spire is supposedly influenced by the billowing of a ballerina's tutu and the Eiffel Tower.  
• 3:  Princes Bridge -- the oldest bridge over the Yarra River in Melbourne; built in 1888.
• 4:  Angel Sculpture in the Birrarung Marr park
• 5 & 6:  Birds & Boat playing "chicken" -- the boat won
• 8:  The possessions of some person who lives under the bridge on a permanent basis
• 9:  Pam & Jodie (joking about their failed attempt to abduct me by getting on the wrong boat)
• 10:  climbing wall under a bridge
• 12:  Australasian Darter & Black Cormorants
• 13:  Melbourne Rectangular Stadium aka AAMI Park
• 14:  Federation Square / St. Paul's Cathedral 
• 17:  love locks on the Yarra Footbridge
• 18 - 19:  Sandridge Bridge.  It used to be a rail bridge -- now a pedestrian bridge.  Artist Nadim Karam was commissioned to create 10 abstract sculptures in a piece titled "The Travellers," which represents the different types of immigrants who traditionally arrived by train over the bridge from Station Pier.  Nine of the sculptures move across the bridge in a 15-minute sequence.
• 20 - 21:  "Constellation" -- done in 1997 by Geoffrey Bartlett.  Supposed to capture the natural suggestions of clouds, the billowing of sails, rigging, the movement of wind vanes, and the associations of ships' figureheads.
• 22:  Melbourne Star -- 394 ft. tall and has seven spokes -- representing the 7-pointed star of the Australian flag.  It was supposed to draw people to the Docklands -- but has pretty much failed at doing that -- it opened 2 years behind schedule in 2008 -- and then closed 40 days later due to structural defects -- didn't reopen again until 2013 (and had to close again for 1 day in 2014 due to "software" problems -- so I don't think I'll be taking a ride on it).
• 23:  Science Museum
• 25:  Williamstown -- Wilkinson Memorial Drinking Fountain (1875)
• 26 & 27:  odd sculptures on top of 2 hair salons in St. Kilda