More of Melbourne: Flinders Street Station, Victoria Barracks, Queen Victoria Market

This is a continuation of my recent posts about my trip to Australia. I took these photos on Tuesday, April 23, when I was out and about in Melbourne with my friend Alison. This yellow and red building is Flinders Street Station, a stop for trains in the main downtown part of Melbourne. It is beautiful, no?

It stands at the corner of Flinders and Swanston Street. The main building was completed in 1909. It was the first railway station in an Australian city. The wide arching entrance is an iconic symbol of Melbourne, and the line of clocks, all showing departure times of the next trains, date to the 1860s.

This bike, with its moving advertisement, was parked out front:

These next two photos show a view kitty-corner from the station: the spires of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the next block up:

St. Paul’s is an Anglican cathedral built between 1990 and 1891, and designed by English architect William Butterfield. Right now, I am kicking myself for not taking the time to go inside, because the photos on the internet look amazing. The photo below is a great illustration of the wonderfully eclectic mix of old and new that is Melbourne:

I took this shot from inside Flinders Street Station, which has a lovely art nouveau window and gorgeous ceiling. Commuting through this entryway would be a joy, wouldn’t it?

Here is a shot showing the scale of the station, which takes up several city blocks!

Alison stands in front of Pie Face, a chain of stores that sell small pies (mostly meat pies, I think). I love their logo and storefront!

Here is Alison with a soldier selling souvenirs for Anzac Day; profits support programs for veterans. Anzac Day – an acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps – is a national day for remembering the Australians and New Zealanders who “served and died in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations,” and “the contribution and suffering of all those who have served.” Similar to our Memorial Day. It is always held on April 25. I bought a souvenir and told the soldier that I appreciated his country’s standing with my country in so many conflicts and peacekeeping missions. 

Alison and I got off our tram to take a closer look at this complex: the Victoria Barracks. At once point, I approached the gate to take a closer look at the stonework and was told (politely but very firmly) by a security officer that I could only take photos from the sidewalk. I apologized and complied quickly; I didn’t want to start an international incident!

Two huge cedar trees guard the entrance. Part of the building was covered with a vine that had turned brilliant red in the cool autumn weather:

Queen Victoria Market was the next stop. Don’t you love the fact that there are live animals and dead ones (skulls) on the facade?

It is an indoor/outdoor marketplace that sells fresh fish, meat, poultry, cheese and dairy products, fruits and vegetables, and souvenirs. Here is just a tiny bit of what I saw:

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have bemoaned the fact that the U.S. did not convert to the metric system (as we were promised in second grade when we studied it). A kg (kilogram) is about 2.2 pounds. All this switching back and forth when you are out of the U.S. is for the birds. The coral trout above is $28.50 a kilogram (in Australian dollars, which are pretty close right now to U.S. dollars), or about $13 a pound. I found most food to be more expensive in Melbourne than in Charlotte. The prices for food, goods, and housing are more in line with major American cities like New York City or Los Angeles.

The front of a sausage and cheese shop:

  
Kangaroo sausages:

Love the name of this cheese shop: The Dainty/Curds & Whey, Cheddar Specialists.

  
The outdoor produce market:

 Large persimmons:

I had never seen feijoa – a tropical fruit – before. (I think the sign has them misspelled.) They are also known as Pineapple Guava or Guavasteen, and come from an evergreen shrub/tree and are grown in parts of South America, as well as Azerbaijan, Georgia, and New Zealand. The fruit is about the size of an egg. 

Look at all the beautiful teapots, creamers and sugar jars in this window. Swoon!

From Victoria Market, I walked back to my hotel. It was a hike, but I enjoyed my last look at the city before heading home on Wednesday. The green trolley in this photo is a free tourist shuttle around the city, and reminded me very much of the trolleys in Pittsburgh, PA, where I grew up (made famous by the trolley on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood children's TV show).

This tree in the park near the Royal Exhibition Building was one of my favorites. It looks like two trees that have grown together, and are locked in a fond embrace:

My next post will include more bits and pieces from my trip.

St. Kilda, pastry, mass transit and parrots

On Tuesday, I left my hotel/apartment, and headed off to meet Alison, my New Zealand friend, for a spin around parts of Melbourne that I had not yet explored. I had to meet her at Southern Cross Station, which was on the other side of town. I briefly considered one of these bikes, which you can rent at one of these nifty stations located around town. But I still have bad memories of a bike accident when I was 11 that left me with two broken bones in my leg, a fractured skull, a concussion, and about two days of unconsciousness. (I have gotten on a bike since, but rarely.) And since Australians drive/ride on the opposite side of the street from American, riding a bike through busy rush hour traffic did not seem the wisest decision.

I bought a Myki mass transit card and loaded it up with a day pass (about $20), and hopped on a train at Parliament Station. Mobs of people came and went on the platform (the photo shows it right after the train departed). They were crowded, standing room only, at 8 a.m. in the height of rush hour.

 I rode until I got to Southern Cross Station. This is the front of the building:

With time to kill until I had to meet Alison, I wandered around the station taking photos of the very cool interior, where about a zillion workers, sightseers, and school children moved about like bees at the hive:

The ceiling undulates beneath a structure of twisted rods, giving a definite sense of movement to a building that is all about moving people and trains:

From the second floor of the station, you can view some interesting contemporary buildings like this one that looked like its walls were made of shreds of aluminum foil under glass:

I love whatever these curvy red things are (below). Perhaps something structural, perhaps just for visual impact.

This building had panels that shimmered gold and red in the sun:

 

After meeting Alison, we set off for St. Kilda, a seaside suburb about a 15 minute tram ride south east from the city center. It was named after the schooner Lady of St. Kilda, and is now a somewhat bohemian area with many artists and musicians.

St. Kilda’s beach is lovely and wide. It was cold and the beach was deserted, except for a few older men who were running from the heated salt-water baths into the chilly ocean, and back again. Brrrrr!

The city skyline viewed from St. Kilda’s pier:

 

The tea house at the end of the pier:

  

 A team was boxing near the beach:

On the street, huge palms line a wide sidewalk that looks down to the beach:

We heard birds and looked up. Do you see the parrots hiding in the palm fronds?

Here is closer viewer. How beautiful! These two Rainbow Lorikeets had carved out a little cave/nest, and were making quite a racket:

We walked downtown, which has great boutiques and some truly astounding pastry shops. It was nearly as fun to look in the window as to indulge.  Notice I said “nearly.” (We did indulge).

The case inside Acland Cake Shop held even more treats:

Outside, patrons sat in the sunshine, eating and drinking tea or coffee:

 

And when they left, the clean-up crew arrived en masse:

Here are some more photos of mouth-watering pastries. Hope I am not making you drool on your keyboard!

Lots of cool coffee shops, including one with this contraption:

My coffee drinking American friends tell me that the coffee in Melbourne is excellent, by the way. Far better than the average American coffee. Apparently a few years ago, Starbucks made a run at carving out a bit of the market share here and failed. I don’t drink coffee, so I can’t comment, but I can tell you that the range of tea varieties here is wonderful.

Meringues the size of saucers, about 5" across!

A poster advertising the “Lunatic Halloween Party” last fall:

St. Kilda’s beautiful clocktower:

Luna Park is St. Kilda’s iconic amusement park, and reminded me of NYC’s Coney Island. This amazing figure is the entrance! It was under construction that blocked some of the mouth, but I got a few nice photos of it anyway.

 

 

The Palais Theatre is just next to Luna Park:

Still more photos of Melbourne to come in the next day or so.