Day Seventeen- Melbourne, Australia

Who could resist watching the sun peak over the water from our ship window?

When our driver came to pick us up he had a day scheduled out in the country again.  We asked him if we couldn't please change the plans and spend some time seeing the city.  He was wonderful to work with us and the first place he took us was to Queen Victoria Market.  We had little time and I didn't get many pictures but it was blocks of merchandise (where the Australian Noah finally appeared), fresh produce, deli's galore, musicians and a festive atmosphere.  We would like to have spent more time there but he had arrange tickets for us to go up onto the Skydeck.

Melbourne has the highest building in Australia called the Sky Deck. We have been up in many high towers in many cities through the last few years but this was the very nicest.  Instead of being a circle like most of them are it was a unique shape with couches, view finders pointing out significant points and a very relaxed atmosphere.  They advertise that they have the fastest lifts in the Southern hemisphere and floor to ceiling windows (from which I got a glare on many pictures.)

Next he took us to a very nice restaurant on the harbor.

Our last event of the day was riding on an old steam engine.  They had costumed period people selling tickets, as engineers, conductors and the works.  

I got a kick out of a sign in the Ladies Room.  Judy said that she had heard someone taking a picture but when I showed her she got a laugh, too.  We were told that 24% of the people in Australia are Chinese.  Chinese people think that it is unhealthy to sit on toilet seats so they will often stand on them so that they can squat.  They are being told here to sit, not stand.

Puffing Billy truly is old steam engine that ran on the tracks that we rode on.  Today tourists hang their feet out and celebrate. All of us had so much fun watching Mike head for the engineer to talk and ask questions.  What a happy time it was for him!