February 12, 2024 Geelong, Australia Day 54 of 138

 

Sunrise as we enter Geelong, Australia at 7 am. We are up early after a late night last night as we have the first excursion of the day and have to be ready to go at 7:30 am. We are going on a driving tour of the area. It is a pretty town that increased its population by 40,000 people during Covid as they did not shut down, like the rest of the country, and they did not have and increase in Covid cases. It would make a good case study. They are now a town of 300,000.

This is our view as we entered the town.

An artist has decorated and placed these along the waterfront, they number in the 100's. He created the bollards from old pier timbers.

The town has many churches made out of blue stone. Here are some of the sites.

Main shopping street lined with California Palms.

Above is City Hall, and one of their parks.

It is not the best picture, but can you make out the Kangaroos? Today is one of the hotter days with a temperature of 87. The Kangaroo stay in the shade during the hottest part of the day. If you want to know how the Kangaroo got its name, When the English arrived to Australia, they asked the locals what they were, and the locals did not understand the question, so they said Kangaroo which meant I don't know or understand. The name stuck.

We stopped at this lighthouse, and rest stop for a break. We were given 20 minutes, and at the end of the time. A man said his wife was not back on the bus. He left and checked the bathroom, looked around the area, talked to a couple that were sitting enjoying the view. It was thought maybe she got on the wrong bus, so our driver was contacting his company to contact the other bus to check. Long story short, after another 20 minutes with no one found, the driver did a count, and asked if anyone on the bus had not been on the bus to start with. Our count was correct, and we guess the husband didn't remember he had come alone on the trip. This is what it is like to travel with senior citizens. It was pretty sad in the end.
It was a beautiful morning and early afternoon in Geelong, but today the Superbowl is being shown live, so the ship is hosting a party and viewing.

We had great music tonight, watched sunset, and now finishing the blog.