Last night after dinner we walked out to the end of this jetty to look at penguins. Apparently Fairy Penguins, the smallest breed of this bird, hang out here.  They go out fishing all day and come back at night to roost.  The are about 18 inches high when upright and sport a bluish color.

These little guys are pretty cute and didn’t smell as bad as the ones we had at the aquarium when we volunteered there!

Today we went on a walk-about in Melbourne. Across the street from our hotel is a huge stadium which holds more that 100,000 people who are crazy about Aussie rules football.  As far as we can figure out there are no rules and the 18 players on each team just run around the large, round field and try to knock down those on the other team.  We wandered across the street this morning and our guide, Anna, convinced the security guards we were harmless and they let us in for a “wee peak.”

Here’s what we saw, not much, but enough.

Buildings were on the menu today.  The first picture is of an old theatre built in the 1800’s. It shows avant- garde stuff nowadays but it is still architecturally unique and beautiful.

All the new buildings are interesting here.  The second picture is of ACMI which stands for Australian Center of the Moving Image.

Next up is an alley where graffiti artists have had a heyday.  Some of the art is incredible e.g. the drops of water on the close-up.

Because many of the old buildings are so unique, innovative steps have been taken to preserve them. Here is a conical shaped mall built around an old “shot tower.”  A shot tower is an old place where gun pellets were made.  We saw one somewhere else and from what I remember hot lead is dropped from the top and shapes itself into balls on the way down. This is possibly wrong so please let me know if you know better!

Today’s final pic is an attempt to show some of the fancy fretwork found on so many buildings here.  Remember it was made from the ballast in the sailing ships that brought people to Australia. I will continue to look for good examples and post them when I do.

Tomorrow is another travel day.  We’re off to Adelaide and more adventures including wine tasting!!