nt anyway. Lucky for us the weather just a little over an hour north was beautiful. Matt was happy because just before we got there we saw a park with a "Hot Jam Donut" truck. He has been trying to get one of these donuts at every market we have gone to but the lines are always really long. Bendigo is the quintessential gold mining town. The first gold was found on a sheep ranch called the Ravenswood Run by the overseer's wife M
argaret Kennedy in 1851. They tried to keep the discovery secret but could not and a gold rush began. The city was named after acclaimed bare knuckle boxer, William "Abednigo" Thompson, who worked as a Shepard on Ravenswood Run. The city has many beautiful examples of Victorian architecture. My favorite detail on these old Australian structures is the cast iron lace work over the verandas. The lace makes even the simplest of houses look elegant. Some major Australian businesses began here like the Bendigo Bank and Myer's department store (equivalent to Macy's in the USA).Our first stop was the Bendigo Pottery Interpretive Muse
um. Like so many others George Duncan Guthrie left Scotland and came looking for his fortune in gold. He didn't find gold in Bendigo...he found clay. He was already trained as a master potter so he founded the Bendigo Pottery Company. The company is still active today and has preserved some of the largest examples of wood-fired kilns in the world. After the tour we had a lesson with a master potter and were able to throw clay and make our own pots. I used to take pottery lessons when I was little but Matt had never tried before. It was really fun but I made a huge mess. We both did well enough to have a piece fired and will get them in the mail in a few weeks. I hate 
to admit it since I was the one with at least some experience but Matt was better on the wheel than I was...something maybe to do with patience?? Who knows.
um. Like so many others George Duncan Guthrie left Scotland and came looking for his fortune in gold. He didn't find gold in Bendigo...he found clay. He was already trained as a master potter so he founded the Bendigo Pottery Company. The company is still active today and has preserved some of the largest examples of wood-fired kilns in the world. After the tour we had a lesson with a master potter and were able to throw clay and make our own pots. I used to take pottery lessons when I was little but Matt had never tried before. It was really fun but I made a huge mess. We both did well enough to have a piece fired and will get them in the mail in a few weeks. I hate 
to admit it since I was the one with at least some experience but Matt was better on the wheel than I was...something maybe to do with patience?? Who knows. Our next adventure was on the Talking Tram. Bendigo's tram system was established in 1880. Most of their tram cars were inherited from Melbourne and used for public transp
ortation until 1972 when the trams were converted to a tourist attraction. We road around the city while the tram(recorded voice) told us all about Bendigo's history. We stopped off at the depot to see where they refurbish all of the old trams, some built as long ago as 1917. The trams at the depot are all still in working order. We h
ad lunch at the Shamrock Hotel in the middle of the downtown area. The hotel is over 100 years old and has had many famous guests such as Prince Charles and Princess Di. The hotel is also well known for hosting various performances. My favorite is Lola Montez. Lola was born Eliza Gilbert in Ireland. She reinvented herself becoming Lola Montez, exotic Spanish dancer gaining fame all over Europe with her "tarantula dance." After a notorious romance with King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Lola fled to California were she danced for gold diggers. A few years later she moved on to Australia to danc
e for the diggers in Victoria. They used to throw gold nuggets at her feet when she preformed. The expression "whatever Lola wants, Lola gets" is credited to Miss Montez. This mannequin was dressed up in Lola's likeness at the visitor center. Many Cathol
ics settled in Bendigo among them Dr Henry Backhaus, a German from Paderborn and the first Catholic priest on the Bendigo goldfields. Dr Backhaus was very financially skilled and collected many properties in Bendigo which upon his death he left to benefit the church and surrounding community. His gift enabled the diocese to start building the Sacred Heart Cathedral, one of the largest churches in Australia. Construction commenced on 1895 but due to lack funds stopped in the early 1900's. When building recommenced in the 1950's. Bendigo did not have enough skilled builders so people were hired over from
Europe to finish the cathedral which finally opened in 1977. We had driven down to take a look at the beautiful sandstone building just as the parishioners were participating in the Annual Marian Festival. Our last stop for the day was the Central Deborah Gold Mine. Matt was very excited about this part of the trip and it would have been very cool if not for one thing. There was this girl, her father and another girl who I assume was an exchange student, probably Eastern European. Outside of news reels from war torn co
untries or kids on sponsorship adds I have never seen anyone look so miserable as the exchange student. The father wouldn't leave her alone even though it was obvious to anyone within five miles of her she wanted him to. She was just short of spinning around in circles to get him to stop grabbing her by the shoulders. It was driving me CRAZY!! I felt so bad for the girl I couldn't really get into the mine thing. I do know this, I could never be a miner for a living. We only went down to the second level (60 meters underground) of the mine which was made all big and reinforced as a tourist sight and I felt sickly. The a
ctual mine goes down seventeen levels. If the elevator ever broke down and a digger had to climb the ladder out from the seventeenth level it would take two and a half hours. I liked the display they had set up showing the difference between real gold and fools gold. At one point the guide had us turn out our helmet lights to demonstrate how the explosions worked. I have never experienced absolute darkness like that in my life. All that kept running thru my mind was the miners trapped in Utah. I was happy to get back above ground in the light and away from that "no sense of personal space"man even though I wished I could take the exchange student away with me. 
The drive back to Melbourne was actually one of my favorite parts of the day. Sunshowers must happen much more often here than back in the states because I have seen more rainbows in the last month and a half than I have seen in 20 years. The biggest and brightest rainbow I have ever seen in my life was stretched over the highway on the way back.
Then the sun started to set. We were whizzing past this farm when I saw an old tree out by a pond with the sunset reflected in the background. Matt did a really calm and slow (sarcasm) u-turn thru the gravel so I could go back and snap a photo. The sight was gorgeous!
