Ann sits at the Speaker's Chair at State Parliament - she's not impressed with what she hears.
The ladies of the GSE team have a seat at Melbourne City Council.
Ann, Holli, Matthew and team leader Marci
Marci and Matthew ride the train into Parliament
At St Paul's Cathedral
Matthew plays us a piece of music at the RACV Club********************************************************************************
Wow what a day!
Today Bill, Jason and myself had a wonderful day hosting our Texan guests to a lovely Melbourne day. We started off our morning at Cheltenham Train station and met all the members of the Vocational Team from Fort Worth Dallas Texas. This was their first train ride in Australia and their first experience of Melbourne.
At 10am we went through the security gate and into State Parliament where we had a behind the scenes tour of the Legislative Council and Assembly, Queen's Hall and the Library. We had an opportunity to enjoy morning tea with MP Bruce Atkinson in the members only cafeteria which we were all quite impressed.
From there, we took a tram down Collins Street and stopped by the lovely buildings of 333 Collins Street and the Gothic Building or the ANZ Bank branch with its majestic interiors and ceilings. We walked over to the oldest pub in Melbourne, the Mitre Tavern and wandered the small city streets to get to the RACV Club for lunch.
Thank you to Jason for organising such a wonderful lunch at the club. Everyone was impressed with the venue but in particularly the food which we needed after all the learning and walking increased our appetite. After lunch, a quick run through of the RACV Club and Matthew played the piano for us - I actually mistook him for the real pianist of the club until I looked closer!
After lunch, we had a quick walk down to Bourke Street Mall and wandered through the Royal Arcade to see Gog and Magog, through to the Block Arcade where we stopped to admire the architecture and Haigh's chocolate shop and then up through the arcade to see the Manchester Unity Building and its elevator doors of pure brass. From there, we wandered down Degraves Street to see the throng of the student crowds, visited Chloe at Young and Jacksons and had a quiet time in St Paul's Cathedral.
We went to our afternoon tour and briefing of Melbourne City Council where Councillor Brian Shanahan took us under his wing for a behind the scenes tour and presentation of chambers, the portico and even his office. We sat in the library and enjoyed a lovely chat for an hour over a cup of tea and biscuits before everyone was offered gifts to remember the visit by.
Overall, a gloriously wonderful day and thank you to Jason for organising the RACV Club for lunch which was a true highlight of the day with everyone; and thank you Bill for sharing the day with us. I hope you both had a good time and learned something new about our city and Texas!
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