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After spending the last two months in Melbourne we decided that we should get our act together this weekend and do some of the tourist things that are on offer here.
We set out this morning and headed for the Shrine of Remembrance, which was built to commemorate all the Australian's that had fought in all wars since World War One. When we arrived we watched a short propaganda film about the war before we went on a brief guided tour of the building with one of the volunteers.
We headed outside to the garden where we were told of the significance of the trees and the design elements. There is a jagged line along the paving that is parallel to an equivalent line on the structure of the building and on November 11th at 11:00am, the shadow falls exactly along the line so the dark represents war and the light represents peace. This theme is repeated throughout the building. There was also an olive tree to represent peace surrounded by a boardwalk that symbolized the trenches of the war.
From here we went back inside the building towards the crypt and at the entrance there was a huge Union Jack flag on the wall that was known as the Changi Flag. When the Japanese took some Australian's captive, the Aussie's took down the flag and managed to hide it during the entirety of their capture so that it didn't fall into the hands of the enemy. It was brought at an auction and dedicated to the Shrine and all the soldiers that were captured have signed their names on the flag.
We then moved into the crypt itself where there stands a statue in the middle of the room of a father and son who fought in the first and second world wars respectively. All around the room are flags from all different nations that fought with the Australians, and the names of the ships that were lost in battle are on plaques on the walls. The ceiling was painted with the Greek symbol of the sun, which we think is to show the dawning of a new day but we can't quite remember.
After the crypt we headed up the stairs to a huge room with a scripture in the middle of the room that reads "Greater Love Hath No Man" and the ceiling leads up in layers towards the light with a small opening on one of these lower layers. When the Shrine was first built, a mathematician worked out that on November 11th at 11:00am the sunlight would shine through this gap and would move across the word "Love" on the scripture. However, because of daylight savings, this now happens at twelve noon instead, so they have fitted an artificial light that they use at eleven and they have two ceremonies on the day. The light also goes off every half hour during other days so after a short wait we saw the light moving and sure enough it passed across the scripture for a few seconds before disappearing again. Also in the room were large marble columns that had been dated back several million years ago (150 million we think he said) and one of them had a fossilised crab embedded in it.
From here we headed up another set of stairs and out onto the balcony around the top of the building. From here we could see out passed St. Kilda and the bay beyond to the south and across the city skyline to the north. It was easy to see from here that the building had built on the axis of two main roads in the city and the panoramic views were something to behold.
Once we had left the Shrine we headed into the city to have a look around South Bank and the Yarra River that the city is built on and we headed up to the Eureka Sky Tower's observation deck on the 88th floor to get a different view of the city. The Eureka is the tallest residential building in the Southern hemisphere at just over three hundred meters high and the views were pretty amazing and it gave a real sense of perspective to be able to see everything so clearly. It was only here that we really saw just how close the Melbourne Cricket Ground is to the Rod Laver Arena, home of the Australian Tennis Open.
There was lots of information about all the sights that could be seen so that whenever we would see something and think "what is that?" we just had to look around and there would be small pole with a description of what it was, with a couple of telescopes attached so that we could get a closer view. We headed to the small outside area that was fenced off and from here we could see people freaking out on "The Edge" - a glass cube that moves out of the side of the building until it sticks out three hundred metres up and then the floor goes see-through. It was funny to see people suddenly grab the hand rails as the floor appeared to give way as if that would save them if they fell!?
Back inside the observation deck we moved around the floor taking in the views out over the river where we could follow it all the way out to the sea, the city and the surrounding suburbs, the parklands and gardens and the Shrine of Remembrance that we had just come from. Almost directly below us was Flinders Street Train Station with its Victorian entrance and across the road was Federation Square - the central attraction to Melbourne CBD that houses the information centre, the museum for moving art, a nice bar and the home for SBS television channel. It is also the place to be in Melbourne on New Year's Eve, kind of their equivalent to Sydney's Harbour.
The weirdest thing about being up in the observation deck (where "weirdest" read "stupid and occasionally scary as hell" was that they had designed the floor to slope in all different directions. This was most apparent when we slowly crept our way to the edge to peer out through the glass, the floor would suddenly tilt towards the window and it would create the sensation of falling towards the windows. It may have only been a split second feeling but that was more than long enough!
Once we had exhausted all possible views from up at the tower we headed back down to solid ground to find that the weather had returned to what we have become accustomed to, and with the wind howling and the rain pouring down we decided that our sightseeing day had come to an end and we headed back to the comfort of home. Tomorrow we are going on a tour of one of Melbourne's most well known places - Ramsay Street!!
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