March 19 - In the Sports Capital of the World

IN THE SPORTS CAPITAL OF THE WORLD

 A sport (not sports or athletics) day! Keith and I had made reservations for a guided tour to opulent, enormous (120,000+) Flemington Park, the home of the Melbourne Cup, Australia's biggest horserace and the richest race in the world; 
"The Straight Six" at Flemington








and the 100,000+ seat Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), home of numerous cricket and AFL games (including the Grand Final, their Super Bowl). 
MCG




















We also drove by the Laver Tennis Centre, home of the Australian Open, and two other footy stadiums, the AAMI (NRL) and Etihad (AFL). Melbourne has big money and accompanying pretense, as the Victoria Racing Club (Flemington) and Melbourne Cricket Club richly demonstrate. And our guide declared that Melbourne is the “sports capital of the world.” They certainly have a fervor and impressive facilities.

While we were out, the girls went out to investigate Melbourne’s shopping possibilities. After we finished our sport tour, I walked a couple of km to the Shrine of Remembrance, a memorial to Victorians lost in WWI and WWII, as well as later wars. It’s situated on one of Melbourne’s many hills, so can be seen from all directions and is tall enough to give visitors a view of the city. It’s not as aesthetically pleasing as the ANZAC Memorial in Sydney with its reflecting pool, but it’s impressive.

Shrine of Remembrance

View of city from Shrine






For dinner we went to Cookie’s, a Thai place that’s obviously very popular. Dinner was tasty, though I didn’t enjoy it as much as the Italian place the night before.

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