WEEKEND WARRIORS
UP CL OSE WITH A NDY We go to the National Gallery of Victoria (180 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne; ngv.vic.gov.au) to see the Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei exhibition. It was pretty cool but my favourite bit was the kids’ area called Studio Cats.
RIV ER RUN We’re having a day out in the city today, so we catch the train to Flinders Street Station and then take a walk along the Yarra River into the city.
TIME TO SHOP In the Royal Arcade just off Bourke Street Mall are Gog and Magog, two statues of mythical creatures who chime the big bell every hour. My dad used to come and look at them when he was a kid and now we go and check them out. There’s also a great toy shop in the arcade called Jasper Junior (facebook.com/ JasperJuniorOZ) – they claim to be toy suppliers to Santa but I’m not convinced.
DASH
checks out some art and makes some as well
S AT UR D AY
08:00
10:30
12:00
GETTING ON TRACK I’m from Orlando, Florida so there are no trams in our city. These Melbourne trams look a little like the San Francisco cable cars, so I jump on the City Circle Tram to get a free tour of the city centre. This route uses some of the older trams that have since been replaced by newer, sleeker models and goes past a lot of the city sights.
L A NE WAY L UNCH S TOP
A N A MERIC A N IN PA RIS Well, an American at the “Paris End” of Collins Street anyways. I stop into La Belle Miette (8 Collins St, Melbourne; labellemiette.com.au) for a macaron and a cup of coffee. The name of this place means ‘beautiful small thing’, which describes my snack perfectly.
54
ti g e ra ir.co m
Walking down one of Melbourne’s laneways I see what looks like Smokey the Bear. He’s promoting a little laneway bar called Chuckle Park (322, Little Collins St, Melbourne; chucklepark.com.au) and it’s themed around a US national park. The food – authentic Cubano and Reuben sandwiches – comes out of a caravan.