26th November - Suburb of Melbourne

Perhaps the blog will remain empty today. We have removed Melbourne, i.e. the city center, from our visit program. I don't want to drive there by car. Even in the suburbs, you can't park for more than three hours at a time. If you do, you get a ticket and have to pay 81 dollars. The immediate surrounding area of Melbourne doesn't impress us either. That's why there are no photos, because I haven't taken a single one so far. This has now been revised.

Now we visited our model residential area one more time. It doesn't seem to be very old yet. Maybe a maximum of 10 years and probably built in the complete size (I estimate at least 3 by 3 km) within a very short time. There are almost exclusively single-family houses and all in the same style. First, a 'shell' is built from a wooden skeleton. The outer wall panels are then attached to it, also made of wood. The exterior walls are usually about 10 cm thick. With the corresponding insulation, they may have quite good values in the end. The windows can either be slid open or tilted outwards. I am attaching a photo of one of our windows so you can imagine it. All windows are single glazed only. If it is windy, you can sometimes feel a draft. You can't overlook that. The houses do not have heating, only air conditioning that also provides warmth. You can't always see the wooden construction of the houses. Face bricks give the viewer the impression of a more stable building substance. Sometimes the houses are also clad with wooden boards or corrugated or plastic sheets. It doesn't always look bad.

In front of some of the houses, we discovered very well-kept lawns. English lawn from a picture book! Stephanie claimed at some point that it was all artificial turf. I said that couldn't be true. Stephanie was right! This can also be seen in two photos.