Melbourne Day One

   We spent yesterday looking around Melbourne. Our colds seem to be improving - Cheri was not bad yesterday and I am one day behind her, so things should be OK in the next day or two.
   We started yesterday going to the National Art Museum of Victoria. Their special exhibit was "Paintings from the Hermitage Museum", but unfortunately the wait line to buy tickets was too long, even though we got there right after they opened. So we checked out a couple of other exhibits (one on the horse in art), then walked back to the city centre. We visited a couple of the shopping arcades and walked the streets before lunch.
   We then took the free city circle tram around downtown and out to the rejuvenated Docklands. Completing the route, we walked over to Fitzroy Gardens, checked out the strange and wonderful plants (photos later), and toured Captain Cook's Cottage.On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Windsor Hotel and managed to get the last booking for high tea there this afternoon.
   We tried for dinner last night at Rice Paper Scissors, a highly rated Asian restaurant, but they don't take reservations. When we arrived, the wait was over an hour, so we walked a few hundred feet to Becco, a pleasant (although a bit dark) Italian restaurant - Cheri had the roast duck (always her first choice) and I had saltimbocca.. Good restaurants are everywhere in Melbourne's downtown area - there were probably 50 of the city's top one hundred within 3 blocks of where we ate, and most of the rest within five blocks.
   Off now to do a little more street and arcade walking (there are a half-dozen 19th century shopping arcades here). then high tea, and an afternoon at the Botanical Gardens.