Sunrise in Melbourne

We had to go through a face to face immigration this morning. We met in the theater and groups were called to go. I was signed up on a tour but elected not to go because of my stomach problems. So after we went thru immigration, everyone left on their tours and we had to wait til everyone had been through immigration.. I came back to the room for an hour or so just to make sure I wouldn’t have any problems. Then I took the shuttle bus to the city. The bus driver told me there was an ATM in the 7/11 on the corner. So I went there first to get Australian dollars. I took out $400. When I checked my bank account later, it showed a withdrawal of $262.. So the US dollar is pretty strong here. I then walked a couple blocks to a lovely area along a river. It was 90 degrees so I didn’t want to do too much of anything. I didn’t need to shop for anything so I just walked along the river. It was a nice area with trees and benches in the shade. There were restaurants everywhere. I saw a sports bar with the Super Bowl playing. It was packed. Not for me. I found a cafe and went in. Since it wasn’t noon yet, I got a breakfast menu, so I had scrambled eggs, ham and sourdough toast. The sourdough was the big draw for me. I haven’t had any since we left the US. It was delicious, as were the ham and eggs.
‘Then I walked to the Skydeck, which is a tall tower like we went to in Aukland. I think this one is taller. So I went up and got a beautiful view of the city. Of course I took lots of pictures. Many were ok, some weren’t. It’s hard to get a decent photo through the thick glass. There is always a reflection. There was an area where you could go outside so I did that. The doors were arranged so you had to wait until one was closed before you could go thru the next one. There was heavy fencing around the platform but there was enough room to get the camera between the wires for some good photos of two stadiums. I saw the highest post box in Australia with post cards for sale, but they had no international stamps, so I didn’t get any postcards. Then I descended from the tower and caught the shuttle back to the ship. I was able to get some laundry done since most people were off the ship. Bunny got back around 4:00. They had gone on the Botanical Garden tour where they went from one shady area to the next.
‘We went to dinner in the Cafe, played the Slider game and went to the replay of the Super Bowl at 8:30. They provided snacks and cake along with the usual drinks. I had water. I lasted through the half time show. The game went very quickly because there were no commercials. I was sad to miss all the new ads. That’s why I watch the game!

Photos; the first is sunrise. The next 3 are the river walk area and the rest from the Skydeck.