25 Nov 2009 - Day 3 (Part 1): Old Melbourne Gaol

When we woke up this morning, we realized that Javier's cheek was quite red and after taking a closer look, it's actually rashes. We suspected it's because of his own saliva that kept flowing out from his mouth. So we brought him to a nearby chemist to see if we could purchase some rash cream to apply on his cheeks. When the chemist saw him, she said it's actually not too serious and applying normal diaper rash cream should be able to heal it. According to her, it will only be a concern if the color of the rashes turn a bit "golden". So we did not purchase any cream as we already had our own diaper rash cream.

Our plan for Day 3 is to visit a couple of attractions within Melbourne City itself. First we visited the nearby Old Melbourne Gaol, which is just two streets away from our hotel, at Russell Street. We passed by a Public Bath on our way to the Gaol.

Old Melbourne Gaol consists of a bluestone building and courtyard and is located next to the old City Police Watch House and City Courts buildings (both now occupied by RMIT University). Once again, this is another attraction that is covered by our Smartvisit cards.

The Old Melbourne Gaol is currently a museum and is Victoria's oldest surviving penal establishment. Step inside the last cellblock of Victoria's first remand prison and explore one of Melbourne's earliest buildings. Investigate the prison lives of such people as Ned Kelly, just one of the 136 men and women hanged at the Old Melbourne Gaol. The building was a focus during some of Australia's most significant historical moments, including the Gold Rush, the Eureka Stockade Rebellion and World War II.

As we were pushing two strollers, we stayed on the ground floor most of the time. There are only stairs to go up to level 2 and 3. I carried Jerlene up to higher levels for a short while and after which, she started climbing up and down the stairs herself.

After spending sometimes in the cells, we walked out to the courtyard where there were many students sitting and running around the place.

Our tickets actually allow us to have a guided tour to the Watch House. The Watch House Experience is a forty minute interactive experience like no other. With a Charge Sergeant as guide, visitors are ‘arrested’ and encounter what it is like to be locked up. Nothing has changed in this minimalist site since the police and inmates left in the 1990's. After the role play, visitors self guide through the watch house taking in sound points and multi media imagery that is educational and informative. However, due to the inconvenience of having strollers in this tour, we decided to give it a miss. Anyway, this tour is not in our plan.

From Old Melbourne Gaol, we walked down Russell Street and along the way, we finally found Woolworths, in which we have been "searching" for it in the past 2 days. We had our lunch in one of the shopping complex before we moved out to our next attraction, Melbourne River Cruise.......