Melbourne has been a time to relax and do some planning for the next phase of our journey.  In between times of planning we have been to a couple of movies, spent some time in an Irish Pub called the Drunken Poet along with doing some walking and touring the downtown area.

Today (Sunday morning) we attended Church at St. Francis which was just a short walk from our BnB.  It is the oldest Catholic Church in Victoria which is the state that Melbourne is situated in.  It was quite the experience as the 11:00 AM service has the choral choir present.  The choir is quite large and they are at a professional level and when they sang some of the liturgical hymns in Latin being accompanied by one of those older styled giant pipe organs it was quite inspiring and very reverential.  Quite to my surprise the Church was packed and people lingered long after Mass was finished inside.  Outside after the service a large group of people stood in line to meet, speak and pray with the bishop and he seemed to spend as much time with each person or group as they needed or wanted.

The Afternoon:

After Mass we jumped on the tram which moves through the down town district free of charge and you can hop on and off at your convenience.  We were able to see the Victoria Parliament building, and old jail located in the down town area along with Captain Cooks house.  Apparently it was purchased in the 1930’s from England, taken apart brick by brick and re-assembled in Melbourne.  Below are some pictures of our visit to the Captain Cooks house.

 That is me below with Captain Cook.  Of course it is a statue as we all know he is dead.  Well, at least that is the rumour. 

A bit of German culture in Melbourne.  Well I think it is German, the sign beside the guy says Munich.  I think it has something to do with beer.  Those Germans.  They show up everywhere and always blowing their horns.  Right Lawrence?