Happy Birthday, Queenie!

As a part of the British Commonwealth, we celebrated Queen Elizabeth II's birthday with a day off on Monday (thanks, Queenie!).  

We bought a deck of walking tour cards at the National Gallery of Victoria, and it seemed like a great way to celebrate a birthday - with the tour called, "The Future is Now"...the tour included the Eureka Tower and the Docklands.

I am well aware that we are huge geeks for buying these and for
taking the tours.

Each card has a map on the back, taking you through the whole tour...
no more lost maps.

Eureka Tower is 297.3 meters (975 feet), and is the 9th tallest residential building in the world.  Much of the design of the building was based off of the Victorian Gold Rush in 1854, with the top floors having 24 karat gold covering the windows, a red strip representing the blood spilled during the rebellion.

The Eureka Tower is the tall building in the middle (this was not taken
on the day we did the walk - this was a beautiful day in the summer, not
the cold, misty, rainy, foggy day we experienced this past weekend).

It has a skydeck on the 88th floor, which is supposed to have amazing views...unfortunately, it was cloudy and rainy, so the view would have been about 10 feet in front of us.  We decided to forgo the view and headed down to the Docklands area.

The Docklands area used to be a huge saltwater lake and swamp...it is now the home to national headquarters of National Australia Bank (NAB), Australia-New Zealand Bank, and the Bureau of Meteorology.  In addition, it is home to Etihad Stadium, Southern Cross Station, and The Southern Star (Australia's answer to the London Eye...blog post on this coming soon...).


The Docklands also houses a pretty big collection of outdoor art.  

An ancient rome exhibit...and the warrior.

Mona Laura.

I. O. U.

Giant Bunny.

A hummingbird sculpture.

The Bolte Bridge as seen through the art installation below.

Made of pallets.

Yes, that is a cow in a tree.  A famous art installation in the Docklands.
And, that VERY colorful building in the background - the headquarters
of NAB.

Weird mushroom inspired sculptures.

Welcome to winter in Melbourne.