Taking Twins to Melbourne

Going anywhere with twins is a challenge.  Having a day out in a substantial city puts that challenge on stilts.

How high are those stilts?  I tested by taking my twin 16 month old daughters to two rather different attractions in Melbourne on one day.  We went first to the Royal Botanical Gardens and then to National Gallery of Victoria.  Both places are straightforward to visit with twins, but a degree of planning is required.

The most critical piece of gear for an outing like this is the stroller.  This really needs to be selected according to the terrain you’re expecting (or vice versa).  A stroller where the children sit one behind the other is great for narrow doorways.  On the other hand, it’s generally unwieldy and after a while you feel like you're driving a supertanker.  A side-by-side stroller is better for feeding while out and about, but is often too wide for access to most doorways.

The Royal Botanical Gardens are a great place to visit with twins.  I strongly recommend a light jogging stroller (which likely means having the children side-by side) as a means of getting about.  The front-and-back stroller I had when I visited was less than ideal for reasons which will become clear.

The Gardens are less than ideal where parking is concerned.  If they have parking lots, I'm yet to see them.  Most of the parking is at street sides and requires a ticket.  Still, the parking spaces nearer

St Kilda Road

have a well made (if unsealed) path to start your trip on (pictured - picture now removed - my laptop seems to have blown a flux capacitor)

Parking notwithstanding, the Gardens are well set up for wheeled transport.  The internal paths, as best I could see and recall, are all sealed.  There is also a running track (known in Melbourne as the Tan Track) around the perimeter of the Gardens.  This pathway is made of compacted earth covered with very fine sand and gravel.  Taking a stroller like the one I was using off the paths and onto the lush grass is not recommended: You will find yourself not strolling but ploughing.  If you are intent on doing this, take a lighter make of stroller, which should be able to traverse the grass with few problems.

 


For obvious reasons, consider the weather before locking in a trip to the Gardens.  Winter in Melbourne is cold at the best of times.  The day I visited was a bright day and reasonably pleasant as long as you stood in the sunlight.  However, the nature of a public garden is that it will have trees, and trees mean shade.  This day the shade had held the cold of the preceding night and dawn.  As I went around, most of my navigational energies were put to keeping the stroller in the sunlight as much as possible.  As I went around I formulated Stephen's law of children and cold, which states "if you can see your own breath, don't leave the children exposed for long".

The gardens do offer some shelter from the weather.  There are some small huts just off of certain pathways (when we were courting my wife and I made out in one).  On the I was there with the twins, all I could find was a gloriously appointed pavilion (pictured) which would have kept the rain off but otherwise looked freezing.  I did, however, find the best place of all on a chilly day: I found the tropical greenhouse.  The temperature was warm and balmy and brought out my daughters' "relieved" faces.  It's also worth a visit for its own sake.  For one thing, I'd never seen the carnivourous "pitcher plant" before (pictured).  It's smaller than I'd expected.  In years to come I'll not be able to quieten unruly children by threatening to feed them to it.  I have adjusted my parenting strategy accordingly.













 
 




 


The operators of the Gardens have thought ahead to the warnings a parent might need and put up suitable warning signs as to bees and trees, (but not as to seas, knees or keys, presumably for fear of a lawsuit from Dr Seuss).
 
 


















 
















Another thing to remember about the gardens is that they are hilly.   A picture will clarify.  This gives you some great views, but be sure to choose comfortable footwear.  My somewhat thin-soled Skechers soon had my feet sore.  And even though the girls were well rugged up, I worked up a considerable sweat pushing the stroller uphill.

Attending the National Gallery of Victoria with children is (surprisingly) easier than one might expect.  For starters, the Gallery offers underground parking with lifts big enough to accommodate a front-and-back stroller.  These lifts deposit you near the entry into the Gallery.  Somewhat anticlimactically, the first thing you see is the cloakroom and the side of the gift shop.  Beyond this, though, is a vast court-yard like area with a glass roof and a flood of natural light.  This area also has a lot of padded chairs and was ideal for feeding the girls their lunch.  The Gallery has two cafeterias, but both were crowded the day I was there).


 





The Gallery has gone out of its way to accommodate parents with infants.  At least one washroom is set aside specifically for small children (the toilet is below an adult’s knee height).  This washroom includes a change table (pictured) which is clean if a little Spartan.  There is also a bigger baby-care area (sorry, no photo) which I highly recommend.  It supplies a long bench with multiple changing depressions, a microwave, a curtained area with armchairs for breastfeeding, and all the other accoutrements a parent could wish for.

The Gallery's other brilliant idea is a "Gallery for Children" area with little art exhibits at infants-eye level.  For older children there are small textual displays about colours, little coloured blocks to play with, and the coolest thing I saw all day: a projection of a kaleidoscope onto a wall.  This kaleidoscope was managed with a series of knobs and wheels laid out a control panel which would have looked perfect on the Starship Enterprise (if the Starship Enterprise had been commanded by toddlers).  There are also small stools, kind of like a hollow circle, which are ideal for adults to sit on or small children to play in.

The Gallery itself is surprisingly easy to navigate with a front-and-back stroller.  The collection is divided into reasonably predictable areas covering mediaeval and Renaissance art, Asia, European portraiture and so on.  Lifts take you for one floor to another (the passenger lift broke down that day, but the staff made the goods lift available).  Each area on a floor is connected by broad walkways and corridors.  The display areas themselves are very spacious and often have benches and chairs.  I can honestly say that getting about with children was actually relaxing.

One more thing: Toddlers like art.  This really shouldn't be a surprise.  Anyone listening to the dialogue or plot of Dora the Explorer, for example, would surely agree that it's the pictures that truly hold the kiddies’ interest.  The only secret is to keep moving at a pace that matches your child's attention span.  If they do get through the day without a meaningful meltdown, do what I did and reward them with softserve ice cream.  They’ll love it.