Taiwanese Visitors_ Day Two

I thought that I would fill you all in some more on some of the great things there are to do in Melbourne (the world's most liveable city, five years in a row now) by showing you the fun we had with the Taiwanese visitors on Day Two of their stay.

We began our day with a visit to the very beautiful Fitzroy gardens in East Melbourne. The gardens were named after Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy, who was the first Governor of New South Wales and then Governor-General of the Australian colonies. The gardens are over 150 years old and are a major attraction in Melbourne.

It is not only home to beautiful plants, trees and wonderful statues and fountains but contains a number of interesting sites. These include:

Captain Cook's cottage, the home of the English 'discoverer' of Australia. It was brought over from England.

The Fairies Tree, carved by Ola Cohn for the children of Melbourne

Sinclair's cottage, a nineteenth century gardener's cottage in the Italianate style

A miniature Tudor Village, a gift from the City of Lambeth, England to the City of Melbourne, in thanks for the generosity of Melbournians in sending food to Britain during WWII.

You can read about all of these and more, by clicking either the link above or this link here

After the gardens, we caught a tram into town and wandered around the historic arcades of Melbourne, especially the Block Arcade and the Royal Arcade. Then it was off to Parliament house for a tour and High Tea in Strangers Corridor. Strangers corridor is where 'Strangers' to the parliament ie guests of parliamentarians or the public on non-parliament session days can sit and have a meal.

It was a very enjoyable afternoon as I had never been inside Parliament House before and it was so magnificent.  A lot of that gold found during the gold rush somehow found its way onto the walls - lol!

Queen Victoria

The parliamentary library was my very favourite part of the building - probably because I started out my teaching career as a teacher-librarian.

High tea was elegant and delicious.

So many stunning buildings in Melbourne, aren't there?

I hope that you have enjoyed this post, I certainly enjoyed the day with my Taiwanese visitors.

hugs,

.