Arrived Melbourne at 8:00 am. Melbourne is the coastal capital of the southeastern Australian state of Victoria. It's widely regarded as the country's culture capital and one of the world's most livable cities. As well, Melbourne has long been regarded as Australia's sporting capital and is home to 27 professional sports teams. After breakfast we joined our tour for the day at 9:30, Panoramic Melbourne.

    
click picture to enlarge

Our first stop was Brighton Beach. The beach on Dendy Street is popular, with a wide stretch of sand and calm bay waters. It is one of Melbourne’s favorite destinations, thanks to its distinctive row of 82 colorful Victorian-era bathing boxes. Built well over a century ago in response to very Victorian ideas of morality and seaside bathing, the bathing boxes remain almost unchanged. All retain classic Victorian architectural features with timber framing, weatherboards and corrugated iron roofs.

    
  
click picture to enlarge

Next destination was the Eureka Tower, the tallest residential building in the world when completed. It was also the building with the most floors available for residential occupancy in the world. The building stands 297 m (974 ft) in height, with 91 stories above ground plus one basement level. The observation deck (Melbourne Skydeck) occupies the entire 88th floor of the Eureka Tower and is the highest public vantage point in a building in the Southern Hemisphere at 285 m (935 ft).

Skydeck 88 features The Edge, a glass cube which projects 3 m (9.8 ft) out from the building with visitors inside, suspended almost 300 m (980 ft) above the ground. When you enter, the glass is opaque as the cube moves out over the edge of the building. Once fully extended over the edge, the glass becomes clear. Quite the sensation!

      
  
click picture to enlarge

On to the Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria founded in 1846. The Gardens extend across 94 acres and is home to the State Botanical Collection which is housed in the National Herbarium of Victoria. The collection, which includes 1.5 million preserved plants, algae and fungi, represents the largest herbarium collection in Australia. It also includes Australia's most comprehensive botanical library.

    
click picture to enlarge

We then made a brief stop at The Shrine of Remembrance, a war memorial in Melbourne. It was built in 1934 to honor the men and women of Victoria who served in World War I, but now functions as a memorial to all Australians who have served in any war.

click picture to enlarge

Crossing the Yarra River, we drove by the Anglican St Paul's Cathedral. The cathedral was completed in 1891, except for the spires which were built to a different design from 1926 to 1932. It is one of Melbourne's major architectural landmarks.

The Old Treasury Building on Spring Street in Melbourne is a grand Renaissance Revival public building, built in 1858-62. It was built to house the Treasury Department, various government officials, the Governor In Council, and basement vaults intended to house gold from the Victorian gold rush. It now houses a range of functions, including a museum of Melbourne history, known as the Old Treasury Building Museum.

      
click picture to enlarge

Leaving the city center, we passed by the Melbourne Cricket Grounds before returning to the ship in the early afternoon. At 6:30 pm we departed Melbourne Station Pier on Hobsons Bay and the Australian mainland.