About a half hour's walk from the very centre of Melbourne, at the fringe of the so-called Royal Park, sits the Royal Melbourne Zoo. In my opinion, it is a wonderful setting for a Zoo, and I consider the neighbouring Royal Park to be truly beautiful, but it is beautiful in a very Australian sense. There aren't any rose gardens, topiaries, or green and manicured lawns here. Nor are there any picnic tables, or extravagant plants with their botanical names displayed on discrete little plaques at their feet. Instead, the park consists of a sequence of endless, sun-parched fields, framing the massive Southern sky above. Impossibly tall Eucalypts stand at the edges, as slim ...  Read the complete review