Thursday Jan 1, 2026 - Melbourne AU Day 2

 

OK, we did not stay awake long enough to see any fireworks last night, but the world, at least here in Melbourne, looks OK so I guess we crossed over to 2026 successfully.

  We both slept normal hours so I'm hoping the jet lag is over. The theory is to go ahead and pull the all-nighter, and then get up at a normal time the next morning, but with this many flights and layovers, we just slept when we could.

Today the plan is to do another walking tour in a different direction. We first walked to Cafe Court, a coffee shop, and had eggs and pancakes. 

Next stop was Block Arcade and Royal Arcade, two historic shopping centers from the 1800's, but they both weren't open yet. We had a long chat with two police officers who were fun and helpful. We decided to try back later in the day.

Then on to the historic train station, Flinders, which is the oldest train station in Australia. A couple employees outside let us in but it was more a working train station than a museum of any kind. Still, it was a busy working train station with a lot of people out and about on New Years Day.

New Years is considered a National Public Holiday and our impression is that anyone working gets paid more for working on a holiday. A lot of places were closed but a lot were open. So if you were working it was a good day to make some extra $$.

Next stop was the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) museum. Very modern and large concrete and glass building. We took the 1.5 hour tour with an older gentleman who was really into art and history starting with the aborigines and ending in the late 1800's after the English colonized Australia. There is a large focus on respecting the original peoples and their art and culture. The English came in droves during the 1850 gold rush, much like our California gold rush back in the states.

We then found the river and walked along the walking /biking paths to the site of the 1956 Olympics, which will now host the Australian Open tennis tournament in 12 days. Nobody was working today so we could just wander around and see all the fancy signage and tennis courts. Deb read that they hosted over a million people at the Australian Open last year, so this is going to be a big deal.

Then back to the city center and we found a sweet little place (Tomo's Little Collins) to get a light lunch. We met a couple of young women from Hong Kong and had a nice chat with the owner who was closing the shop at 3 pm because it didn't pay to stay open any later given the higher wages paid (the government holiday thing).

Then back to the hotel for a short nap for John while Deb went across the street to do a small load of laundry. We had some credit with the hotel so visited the bar for a cider and a beer, then walked back up the street to BBQ King, a Korean barbecue where you grab your raw meat and cook it on the table using a small butane stove. Lots and lots of buffet options and all you can eat for 90 minutes. We were careful not to eat too much.