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Friday, 12 December, Melbourne, AU A day of rain and gray skies. We finally got up and headed to brunch at a place we'd heard much about. We went to the Hopetoun Tea Rooms in the historic (1893) Block Arcade building a couple of blocks away from the hotel. It was completely charming and the building was beautiful, with amazing mosaic floors. The Tea Rooms were covered in an elaborate green wallpaper, and contained appropriate small tables and chairs. A gentleman waited on us, and we ordered scones and tea (Gail) and "potatoes with cream" and coffee for me. Gail's was as expected, although the scones were smaller than she expected. Mine was a gigantic baked potato with sour cream, chives, bacon, cheese, and so forth, all on a bed of tangy coleslaw. I didn't realize I was that hungry, but I cleaned the plate. Another wonderful meal. We then went to a post office in an office building. In Australia the post offices have even more in the way of "supplies and stuff" than the newer ones in the US, and are much more like a smaller OfficeMax, with most office supplies, greeting cards, batteries, and a host of other things. We got the stamp we needed to mail a check to Boise. We walked on through the rain to the St. Paul's Cathedral, which is just behind the hotel. It has beautiful stained glass windows and a beautiful altar as well. It also had the most elaborate Bishop's Chair (Cathedra) and Dean's Chair that I've ever seen. They have 1215 Eucharist every weekday, and since we can't attend Sunday morning due to our flight to Sydney, we decided to go on Friday instead. The service was, as all of the Anglican services have been in Australia, very close to the US Episcopal service, with only minor changes in wording of the text in several places. The priest served about 16 of us, and gave the most political sermon I've ever heard. He talked about global warming. At present the Australian Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and Premier, Kevin Rudd, are at odds over what Australia should do regarding the issue. Brown wants Australia to lead the world in carbon trading and reducing global emissions, whether any of the other major countries do so or not. Rudd says Australia should do what the US and Canada and other major countries do, and not lead the world on its own. Naturally, Al Gore has also been phoning Rudd to get him to change his mind. The priest went on at some length on how we should all write to our representatives in Parliament, and particularly to Premier Rudd, so that he'd decide to do the right thing. I'm sure the US Episcopal Church supports the same issues, but I can't imagine a priest giving such a blatantly argumentative and political sermon. The church was consecrated in 1891 and is currently undergoing renovation. With bad weather and lots of other things built around it, it is tough to get good pictures of it. By the time we left the church, it was raining hard, so we found a public restroom and then had lunch at a nice Japanese restaurant. Then we got on the City Circle Tram, which goes around the CBD, one or more in each direction all the time. Best of all, it is free. After the trip around the city we came back to the room to watch the Bears beat the Saints in overtime, on about a four hour time delay. Best of all, it was like watching it on our DVR, since they'd eliminated all the commercials, halftime, pregame chatter, and so forth. Finally I ran out to Subway a block away and got us sandwiches for supper. Back to itinerary (trip home page)
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