As the departure time was 9pm, both Jerlene and Javier were still awake while we boarded the plane. The take off seemed pretty smooth and I heard this is a general positive feedback on an A380. There was no issue for both Jerlene and Javier throughout the flight.
We touched down at Melbourne airport around 7:15am. Once we got our luggages (and two strollers), I went straight to the Skybus counter to purchase the tickets (return) to Melbourne city. Children below 4 are free. Adult ticket costs AUD26 for return round trip. One "not so good" thing about Skybus is that it does not bring us straight to our hotel. It went to its main station (Southern Cross station) in the city and from there, they have smaller shuttle buses that go round the various city's hotels.
By the time we reached our hotel (Ibis Melbourne Hotel at Therry Street), it was around 10am. While I was checking in at the reception, I suddenly heard Jerlene crying. I quickly rushed over and saw her lips bleeding. Tracy said she fell down and knocked her lips on a coffee table. There was a small scratch just below her mouth. Poor Jerlene.......what a start for the trip.
As there were rooms available, we checked into room 1118 immediately. Tracy started unpacking some clothing while I brought Jerlene into the bathroom for a quick shower. After I finished bathing her, I was shocked to see the entire bathroom floor was flooded. I quickly called up the reception to ask for help. As nobody came after waited for half an hour, I instantly went down to the reception and asked for a change of room. We shifted to room 818.
After settling down finally at about noon, we started our "exploration" of Melbourne city. Although the famous Queen Victoria Market is just beside our hotel, it was closed on Mon and Wed. So we walked down slowly along Swanston street towards the Federation Square. Just before we reached Federation Square, we passed by one of the most famous train station, Flinders Street Station.
Just across the street is Federation Square, Melbourne's Meeting Place. Fed Square opened in Oct 2002, as one of the most complex and ambitious construction projects ever undertaken in Australia. Comprising an entire city block, the bold and audacious design is the work of Lab Architecture in conjunction with the Australian architects Bates Smart. A unique fusion of civic and cultural activities, Fed Square is recognised internationally as one of the world's great public places.
Our main objective for day one is to visit Melbourne Visitor's Centre at Fed Square. We intend to purchase a three days See Melbourne and Beyond Smartvisit Card which allows us unlimited access to 60 over attractions in Melbourne and surroundings. Together with the card, it comes with 3 full days Metcards that allow free travel within Zone 1. Below shows the visitor centre and St Paul's Cathedral behind it.
There are many attractions around Fed Square and one of them is called Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI). One good thing is that the admission is FREE!
Here, one will explore the world of film, television and digital cuture. More than just a museum, gallery or cinema, ACMI combines all of this with unique behind-the-scenes and hands-on experiences. Jerlene was having fun running around this place and touching any button that she can find.
There is a corner called Kids Space and is showing some film. Although Javier cannot run around like Jerlene, he too enjoyed sitting on a bean bag watching the film.
There is another museum called Racing Museum which is just opposite of ACMI. We did not go into this museum as it's not free.... :P So we just took some photos outside of it.
As we were about to leave Fed Square, I suddenly realized my backpack, which contained all our travel document including our passports, was not with me. We recalled where we have been earlier and believed it should be in ACMI. So I quickly rushed back and thankfully, it was still on the floor. Not sure whether I should consider today as a fortunate day but this is definitely an eventful day one.
As we walked away from Fed Square, we came to Yarra Riverside. There were people punting along the river. The moment Jerlene saw them, she started singing "Row Row Row your boat, gently down the stream..............."
Very soon, it was already 6pm and it's dinner time. However, the sky was still bright as it's coming to summer. We heard that the sunset will be at around 8:30pm. We decided to slowly walk back to our hotel and on our way, find a place for dinner.
We reached our hotel (above) at about 8pm and called it a day. This ends day one of our week long trip in Melbourne.
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