Another bright and early day – we are up and ready to go. It is a beautiful day and the city is sparkling in the sunlight. We have breakfast on the balcony and as we are awaiting its arrival, we notice there are balloons sailing about the city skyscrapers. How cool! And beautiful – and lovely from down here at sea level! LOL.

We have to leave the ship by 10am and can’t get back on until after 11:30 to get immigration/customs all done and zero out the ship. Not a problem for us – we want to be in town early to explore the botanical gardens and then hit the museums before getting back to the ship well before 4:30 all aboard. We make our long walk down the gangway (seriously – it is really a long walk!) and get all the way out to the exit area when I realize I forgot my phone. Honestly! How in the world did I do that? I’ll never know! What a dolt! Oh well, besides feeling naked all day – I really don’t need it. We have Ed’s phone and all we really need are maps – so….it is weird…but I just have to make do! At least we’ve been here before and basically know our way around.

It is an easy walk to the tram station, where we try very unsuccessfully and very frustratingly to buy a Myki card, which is the only way to pay for the city trams. What a pain! I know you can buy them at 7-11’s and other stores, but we’re already here on the platform, cursing the dumb machine and the tram is right here. Ok – we’re hopping a ride – we’ll just play dumb if anyone asks. Plopping down on the tram, the helpful people who got on behind us tell us not to worry about it. They are obviously local, have their cards, and basically say if the transit authority were so interested in the cruise folks spending money to ride the tram, they’d have someone at the station helping out, now wouldn’t they? Sweet! And sort of true, actually. How much money are they losing? The trams are free once you are in the CBD, but in order to get there, you have to pay. Talk about easy money they are just throwing away. Oh well – we make it fine into the CBD without getting busted – and our new friends give us a tour as we travel down the tracks past all the interesting sights! Very nice.

Hopping off at the Flinders Street station, we walk down St. Kilda Road toward the Botanical Garden, being sure to steer clear of the Australian Open stuff going on – we are fortunate in that most of the activities are a few blocks away. It is a fabulously gorgeous day, the river sparkles, the flowers are in full bloom at the gardens and the Shrine of Remembrance – the war memorial – is incredible in the early morning sunlight.

Wandering into the gardens, we take time out for a cappuccino at the little cafe by the entrance, then begin wandering through acres and acres of gardens that were established here in 1846. It is beautiful and so many different areas to see. The Fern Gully, with its amazingly huge ferns and trees, including the weird root tree – yeah, don’t think we can put into writing here with what that really looks like!

Then it is down to the central and ornamental lakes where there are wonderful lilypads with gorgeous flowers. We end up circling around the lakes, taking pictures here and there of the lovely area.

Finished with our nature walk, we dive back into urbanization, walking back up St. Kilda in search of the National Gallery of Victoria’s Australian collection. The Gallery we walk past first is the national art collection, which we don’t necessarily want to see. The helpful guard there tells us we are looking for the “other one.” Um, yes, we are! She tells us it is back by Federation Square, which is across the river. Works for us – we’re headed that way for the Immigration museum anyway.

Walking up the street we can’t help taking pictures of the oddly designed skyscrapers all over the city. The architecture is great. They take something that would look boring and just like everything else (hello Asheville) but add some feature to give it style. Totally cool.

Crossing back over the Yarra River bridge, we find Federation Square pretty easily – can’t miss it – and then wander through the courtyard searching for the museum, eventually finding the entrance tucked away in the corner and up an escalator. It is a very cool museum, spread over 3 floors with lots of different art using some great materials. An easy way to spend an hour, just wandering through.

Which we do! And then decide it is time for lunch. There are a couple of cafes and a food truck on the Square proper, but nothing that really appeals to us. Meandering down to the riverside, though, there are a ton of different places, all with excellent river views. We choose the Riverland Bar – mostly for the “bar” part, but also for the pizza part! It is a great place to rest for a bit, enjoy our beverages and filling meal while watching the river – and the zipliners flying across said river.

Then we’re off to the Immigration Museum, our last stop for the day. This is a fascinating place filled with all sorts of memorabilia and information about the millions of people who have migrated to Australia since 1788 – as well as a really wild contemporary display of a dining table using old Jewish articles pulled from a suitcase of an emmigre.

Wanderings complete, it is time to return to the ship. Since it is such a beautiful day, we decide just to walk. It is only a little over 4KM and pretty much a straight shot down big main boulevards. So off we go, passing the wild exhibition center that looks like a drawbridge, along the riverbank, then turning toward the port, essentially following the tram tracks. It is a lovely walk, through clean city streets and then through a series of lovely green-space parks. And with that, we are back on board in a snap, hanging out on our balcony watching a lovely sail away.