Did you know that the Head of State in Australia is the Queen of England? As such we get the second Monday in June off for Queen's Birthday. The funny thing is that it's not actually the Queen's Birthday and not all of Australia celebrates it on the same day.
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| Melbourne and the Yarra River |
The Queen's actual birthday is on April 21st, but since the death of King George V in 1936 (his actual birthday was June 3rd), the monarch's birthday has been celebrated in early June rather than on the actual date.
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| Sign along the Capital City Cycle Trail because Australia... |
Most of Australia celebrates Queen's Birthday on the second Monday in June; Western Australia and Queensland are the exceptions. Western Australia celebrates in late September and Queensland celebrates in early October. Last year I missed out on getting to celebrate Queen's Birthday because I was in Queensland when my coworkers in Melbourne celebrated and then I had moved down to Melbourne when Queen's Birthday rolled around in Queensland.
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| Heron along the Yarra River |
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| Red-Rumped Parrot |
This year I took advantage of the three day weekend mostly by sleeping in and relaxing. I'm training for a half marathon at the end of July, so I also did a couple long runs but generally I had a pretty chill weekend. We had really nice weather on Monday, so I walked from the CBD (aka - downtown) out to Abbotsford Convent along the Capital City cycling path which follows the Yarra River. It was a lot further out than I had anticipated (~8 miles) but it was a really nice walk.
The Convent dates from 1861 and, at this point, is a thriving arts community of galleries, studios and cafes. The grounds are great for meandering and there is a children's farm right next door.
It's starting to feel like winter here and the mountains around Melbourne are starting to get some snow, so enjoy the summer weather for me if you're in the Northern Hemisphere!
