My last day in Melbourne was pretty sedate. The rain that had dogged me most of the trip took on new life this Saturday by taking turns with bright sunlight about every 20 minutes.

I dropped my bags at the front desk and then set out to explore a bit of Melbourne. I really didn’t want to shop, since I knew Andrea was coming and we’d be doing a lot of shopping in Sydney, and it really wasn’t a great day for walking around.

So I went off to the aquarium. I’ve seen better, but it wasn’t bad and some of the coral displays were quite breathtaking. There was the expected gaggle of kids, but I was able to time my tour to avoid most of them.

After the aquarium I walked down the street to Federation Square. Apparently this is something of an architectural showpiece in Melbourne, and like most such things it does invite comment, both pro and con. I wandered around a bit, but it didn’t hold my attention for long.

Of course, by the time I got out it was sprinkling again. I decided this was a good time to explore the “City Circle” train that Euan told me about. This train is free, and is mainly to help tourist get acclimated to Melbourne city. For me, I knew it would take me the six or so blocks to my hotel without me getting wet, but I decided to stay on for the loop.

It was pretty interesting. Melbourne seems to have a lot of contemporary art, including a piece called “Cow Up a Tree”.

I also noticed that we stopped right by the postal museum. ECV has an office in the same building, so instead of walking across town on Friday I could have taken the Circle City train. Live and learn.

By the time I got back to my hotel, I still had plenty of time to make it to the airport, but I was eager to go. I grabbed a cab and managed to get on an earlier flight to Sydney. I was glad I did, because I had two long delays. The first was because a passenger had checked baggage but failed to show up on the flight. So they had to search the entire hold for his bag. The second happened when I got to Sydney, and I’ll mention it later.

The best news on leaving Melbourne was knowing that the Brisbane Lions were having a tough time of it at this week’s footy game.