A Walk About the City

On a bright sunny day, we wandered downtown Melbourne to soak up the holiday season.

Here in the edge of Chinatown, are lots of colorful places selling just about anything asian you can imagine.

On Bourke street, part of the street is blocked to traffic except for the trolleys making the center of the city is an open-air mall. This comes complete with street performers.

This fellow was actually quite good. Check out a snip of his performance.

There were also other street artists.

Not far away is another arcade. These are very common in the CBD as every effort is made to use all buildings for as much retail as possible. This one is very nice and decorated for the season.

This particular arcade is focused on games, toys and such although other sorts of stores are here as well.

For some reason, it was decorated with Gog and Magog at one entrance.

Over by the Myer, the big department store here comparable to Marshall Field's in Chicago or Harrod's in London. Like those stores, the display windows are decorated at Christmas time with lavish productions to attract the crowds. The difference here is that what Myer shows are scenes common to Australia. Christmas in the summer.

This little girl is completely mesmerized by the scene with the merry-go-round.

Across from the Flinders Street train station is an alley arcade will with restaurants.

Lots of sights and sounds in Melbourne. Its a great city and well worth the visit. We learn more each time we travel in and are naturally planning for more visits.

We've moved to a new house sit in Coburg, a neighborhood about half the distance from the CBD as Montmorency, so I expect more visits in the near future.