31st January 2010
This morning we went to explore St Kilda and its craft market. St Kilda is Melbourne’s seaside resort with its strip of beach and pier stretching out to sea.
We started off by walking along Acland Street, St Kilda’s main drag where the cafes and cake shops were packed with people enjoying a Sunday morning coffee and cake. Then we headed to the beach where we wandered along the broadwalk before going up to the Esplanade to check out the market stalls dotted along it plying their arts and crafts.
Next we walked out along the pier to the St Kilda Kiosk at the end which was reconstructed after a fire and now sells refreshments. Behind the kiosk we carried on walking out along the man-made breakwater to check out the penguin colony. I actually spotted a head at one point, but it soon disappeared back into the rocks.
After St Kilda, we took the tram back into the city and got off at the Crown Casino near the arts centre. We went into the mall for something to eat, then walked inside towards the arts centre. When we got to the casino we stopped a while to watch their lit-up ceiling and indoor fountains moving in time to the music.
Back outside and we found another arts and crafts market outside the Arts Centre selling a diverse range of Australian craftwork along with the obligatory buskers along Southbank. By now the temperatures were once again in the mid thirties so we headed into the National Gallery of Victoria to cool off and look at a few of their exhibitions.
The building itself is as much a work of art as its exhibits with its impressive waterwall in the entrance which uses continually recycled rainwater along with the Great Hall and its stained glass ceiling. We visited a few of the exhibits including the Fashions and Textiles Gallery and the Contemporary Photography gallery.
From the Arts Centre we went back into the CBD to explore Melbourne’s arcades and laneways using a podcast we had downloaded. Melbourne is a city which prides itself on its arcades and lanes which are home to a diverse range of cafes and independant shops and in places are very reminiscent of our arcades in Cardiff.
Starting in Degraves Street, a mecca for Melbourne’s cafe society, we moved onto Centre Place, also full of little cafes, some so small you can touch both walls at once.
Next we entered the early steel framed building of Centre Way before crossing over to the exquisite 19th century Block Arcade with its mosaic floors and fascinating shops.
The next stop on the walking tour was the oldest shopping arcade in Australia, the elegant Royal Arcade. This arcade has a fascinating clock which features Gog and Madog, two legendary giants of the ancient Britons who have struck on the hour since 1892.
Then we moved right back into Melbourne’s present shopping heart, the Bourke Street Mall, passing the sculpture of the Pubic Purse and the GPO building.
Leaving the arcades, we went on to explore some of the laneways where we discovered a superb group of 1880s warehouses at Niagra Lane with its barrel hoists.
Our final point on the tour was the bustling Hardware Lane which epitomises Melbourne’s renaissance. With cobbled stones underfoot and cafe umbrellas overhead combined with fascinating facades and small speciality shops.
