Mar 21, Melbourne

For our last day in Melbourne, we left the camper early for Queen Victoria Market. It's an extensive building, seemed to go on forever. About a fourth of it was filled with people selling fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, we couldn't buy much and carry it around all day, so we only got 4 limes. It all looked really good though.
The rest of the market was everything else; pets and pet supplies, 'Ugg' boots, tshirts, brushes, telescopes, toys, just about anything you could imagine.
From there we took a tram to Rippon Lea, a National Trust property. An impressive home with extensive gardens, it was built in the 1868, added onto in the 1890's and redecorated in the 1930's. It was a dark, crowded Victorian house before the redecoration. Now the dark wood has been painted in warm yellows and the interior is light filled. The tour took us through the drawing room, sitting room, dining room, a couple of bedrooms and bathrooms.
In the dining room was a custom made Turkish carpet, maybe 50'x24', bought in 1880. In 1990, the National Trust decided to have it cleaned. It was rolled up and it took 10 men to move it. After it was cleaned, 4 men could carry it!
There were orchards, vegetable gardens, a pond and a fernery. The fernery was an extensive collection of ferns under a wooden structure that looked like a huge quonset hut made of fencing. It is the largest fernery in the world.
A word about public transportation in Melbourne. It is great. We walk 15 min in the morning to the tram which takes us into the city. We have a prepaid card that allows us to ride all day on trams, buses and trains for $7.00 each. We've taken full advantage of it. There is also a free city circle tram that does a loop around the central business district, that everyone uses.
So we took the train back from Rippon Lea to the city, then a tram to The Shrine of Remembrance. It is memorial near the Botanic Gardens. It was built in the 1930's as a memorial for Victorian men and women who died in World War I. The design is based on descriptions of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus in Asia Minor. It was extremely windy today and we had to be careful on the balcony not to be knocked over.
We hopped on the free tourist shuttle bus because I wanted to take some pictures of the iron balconies on some of the older homes.
Our campground is in a suburb north west of the city in a residential area. The houses here are neat, mostly brick single story homes and most have fences in front.
It started to rain as we headed back to the campground and the tram was stuffed with people. Luckily for us by the time we got to our stop, the rain was letting up, and we didn't get too wet.
Pictures-Queen Victoria Market, Rippon Lea, Shrine of Remembrance, Iron Lace Balconies, Samson with AstroTurf car.