Wedneday in Botanic Gardens and home Thursday

 On Wednesday I did not venture far from my hotel , only as far as the Botanic gardens where I  pottered around some more and sat for a while.  I walked along some different roads. 

My return home was uneventful and my home was as I left it. 

Now to think and plan for my next trip. Maybe Florence?

Tuesday, more beach walking

Tuesday was a longish day. I walked to Prahan markets, but the shop I wanted was closed, so I caught the train to Elsternwick, as planned. There is a shop that only sells gluten free stuff that I tried to visit a week or 2 ago but it was closed. It was open, so I had a large piece of pizza and a blueberry muffin( the lightest gf muffin I have ever had) for breakfast . This was instead of a croissant. The owner told me to come back in a month and they would have gf croissants. They almost had the recipe and ingredients right. We had an interesting  conversation.

Next I walked west towards Elwood and the water and where I had stopped walking  south from St kilda on a previous day. Then I walked south along a path . It was a lovely walk in nice weather for a change, not very windy like it has been.   Water on my right and huge houses or parks on my left. The path petered out at the bathing boxes at Brighton but luckily the tide was going out so there was hard sand to walk along.  Then more path till I stopped at Brighton Beach where there is a train station close to the coast. And luckily close to a large pub where I had a lateish,  large but average lunch.. I caught the train back and stopped at Prahan and luckily the shop I wanted was open. I was a bit tired walking back to my apartment.  

Monday Fitzroy again

On Monday I went into the city for coffee at  a place i had been recomended. Another very small space into which not many people could squeeze, but I managed to. Then I walked a circuitous  route through the edge of East Melbourne to a different  part of Fitzroy, a very eclectic mix of housing, shops, cafes,bars . One of the streets I walked along was  the street that divides Fitzroy and Collingwood. I had an interesting conversation with a local man sitting on a bench with his dog. He reckoned there was a distinct difference in people between the 2 suburbs .  

I walked back to the city and spent a long time in Lincraft talking to a lady who was also buying embroidery threads. She was a textile artist and had stuff in an exhibition. Then back here.

Narre Warren North, SE of Melbourne

I usually quite like sitting in trains, despite my whinge about yesterday. I can switch most of my brain off. Today was a good day. Several trains and a bus to visit Noel's  delightful great granddaughter and her dads. She is delightful, growing fast, just started to walk. Then back here again.

Williamstown Saturday

I had a lovely day walking in   Williamstown. Getting there was a bit fraught. I had to change twice, despite the ladyin the train over the loudspeakers saying the train was all stops to Williamstown.  She was not having a good day because on one of the 3 trains she told us that the connecting train would leave from a different platform to the one that it left from. I walked from the station to the  beach that looks southwards, then around from there eastwards, then northwards along the coast to newport and train home. I stopped for food and drink at various places. One of the highlights was sitting on a stone wall on a pier eating 6 oysters from a fisherman's stall watching the boats around me and the contrast. There was a small very heavy duty tugboat- like fishing vessel near a beautiful, sleek racing yacht having its hull cleaned.

Wed Fitzroy, Thur Ivanhoe, Fri Prahan

I have a little book of things to do in Melbourne and in it there is a walk around Fitzroy, describing the history and style of some of the buildings. So that was the focus for Wednesday morning. It was most enjoyable, despite the rain, though my book did need careful drying out. I had a nice lunch at a small place serving Columbian food which was most enjoyable. There were corn based pancake like things or rice based dishes Lots of choice.

Yesterday late morning I left  here to catch 2 trains and then walk, to  the home of a cousin of John's who I haven't seen for 15 years. She has very similar aged kids and granddads and interests as me. We got on very well. It was lovely to catch up with her.

Today i have done nothing much, other than walk around more streets that I haven't walked on before in Prahan, just south of here.

Tuesday's Lowlight Melbourne Central

This mornings aim was to walk along Lygon St in Carlton and see an exhibition in the Melbourne uni. I got out of the train, as planned at Melbourne Central station. I tried to follow the signs to a road but I ended up in another noisy, flashy signs , too many people  etc etc shopping centre /mall/ emporium/?whatever. I got out, but it was the days lowlight. 

I enjoyed wandering up Lygon Street, but at 10 am I was a bit early.  But there was an open interesting cafe, more Greek than Italian, that was OK.  Then I went west to the edge of the Melbourne Uni campus. The  Potter Museum of Art has a new exhibition on  called 65,000 years : A short History of Australian Art. I really enjoyed the exhibition, though didnot take in all 400 works. It was well arranged. 

Monday

This morning I caught a tram to Balaclava to go to a cafe for breakfast that I had read about. It is called All things being Equal , a not-for-profit  cafe run to give people with disabilities  opportunities.  Then I caught a tram in the direction of a wool shop in Glen Iris. It was large and I enjoyed pottering, but they didnot have what I was looking for.. After a coffee in a nice Cafe I caught a tram back in the direction of south Yarra, where I am staying, but got off about 5 km before and walked through a large part of Toorak. I was getting a bit tired of nice leafy streets, 2 story big  houses , 6ft high fences almost on the footpath, when I came across a different place. I could see over the fence that there were a lot of colourful bright quirky statues in the front yard.  Most of the houses I  had  passed had a gate in the front wall, with letter box slot , intercom, key pad, notice saying No advertising or similar. The quirky statue house had 2 different signs on the gate next to the letter slot and intercom/keypad. One said "Nevermind the Dog, beware of the owner", the other " Insane asylum, please enter with caution".  I brightened up considerably. 2 streets later the houses were much smaller.

Sunday, dodging protestors

It was my intention to do a few things in the city, yesterday, Sunday.  On my way in I stopped for a while in the botanic Gardens, then thought I would get a tram for a few stops. The route was changed because of protests. It was a bit hard to understand the announcements about what streets were affected because I donot yet have a mental map  of where the streets are in relation to each other.  My first stop was to a huge bookshop Readings. The trouble is it was inside a huge mall  of brightly lit shops and no clear pattern of the aisles.. They were not laid out in a rectangular grid of 90 degrees.  I  followed directions from one of those helpful boards, trying to remember the way .  But when I left Readings, I could not remember  the way out.  Ah well, at least I can still speak to ask for directions.

The next place I was heading for was past the library, but as I approached the shop I saw a line of about 20 police and a whole lot of people chanting something unintelligible behind them, so I turned right,  but not long after came across another group of police with protesters behind them. So I turned another corner and after a few streets came across a third similar group. Who started moving towards me. I scuttled down a different street, along with a few locals.  I went into the museum of the moving image and was buying some food at a kiosk thing when a group went past. The noise the protestors were making was huge.     I have just re read what I have written. I definitely came across 3 separate groups but I cannot have  turned a right angle each time. The 1st and 3rd group were aligned the same way. Never mind, you get the drift.

In the evening I went to a choral evensong service at the Anglican Church a few blocks away from me. They have evensong ( an Anglican service but no sermon and no communion) every Sunday, but the 3rd Sunday has an augmented choir. There were about 25 choristers. Beautiful music in a lovely old church.

Saturday West Footscray

I have never been to Footscray. Why go there you might well ask? I read about a bookshop on the edge of West Footscray that had a coffee machine and  lots of community events. Why not visit? The bookshop and the people were all lovely. And the coffee was good.  It was full, so they must have been providing a good service.   I had taken the train there and walked over 1km I think . After my coffee and pottering amongst the bookshelves,  I got the train back to Footscray but after walking for about 5 minutes in what I thought looked the direction of the main shops , I decided to give up . I was not comfortable in the surroundings.

 I chatted  to a lady going to the Caulfield Cup on the train. Seeing the people dressed for the races on the train reminded me of my first trip to New York. I got the train from the Lincoln Centre back to my apartment about 4 or 5 stops north along Broadway. 11.30 pm, there were musicians busking on the platform playing tunes from the opera i had just been to,. The train was packed with very well dressed people. I had to stand, along with many others. My nose was almost in a lady's fur coat.

Prahan and Windsor

Today was an easy day with not too much walking..Only 7km.  I walked south along Chapel Street through Prahan to Windsor. Prahan looks like it was quite a wealthy suburb in the late 1800s.,There are quite a few quite opulent buildings of that era in the main street. I had been told that Windsor was a trendy ish place with nice cafes. My informant either is out of date or keeps different hours to me. Probably both. There was only 1 cafe open at 7.15 , but the coffee was good . It was quite busy. There were quite a few empty shops. I zig zagged my way back along  back streets.  i stopped at the Prahan markets for a look.  In quite a few places over the last 3 weeks I have seen interesting little gardens or kids play areas built in little pockets of land near railway lines. Previously unused i guess. 

Thursday Walking 10 16

Today went mostly to plan. I started early, 7.30 ( to beat the commuter rush) ,  and caught a tram into near the city and changed to a bus to go westwards to Garden City, part of Port Melbourne.  As near as I could get to Sandridge Lookout, the western part of the bay and as far as you get without getting mixed up in stacks and stacks of containers. On the map there was a cafe and a few other shops at Garden City. The best I could do for breakfast was a sausage roll.  I then walked to Sandridge Lookout. It was a specially built tower that had a ramp up to the equivalent of the 2nd floor of a house and a tall structure above, which I think was just meant to be decorative. However, it was very very windy and there was a horribly loud and eerie noise coming from the tower I talked to a fisherman , or more accurately shouted with a fisherman. He said he had never heard  it as bad as today.. I did not linger, but started walking back towards Melbourne. There were no other people and the fisherman was going to leave.

I walked as close as I could get to the sand around the bay, past the wharves, big new apartment blocks of Port Melbourne and stopped at a lovely place which made up for the lack of choice I had at breakfast. Most of their cakes were gluten free, some low in sugar, they had gf crepes, good gf bread etc  I sat for quite a while savouring a raspberry friand-like little cake.  Then along the beach of middle Park, some quite modest little houses at the Port Melbourne end , then along the beach of Middle Park to the edge of St kilda, where I had started to walk eastwards from on Tuesday 30 Sept. It was interesting  looking at the variety of houses, apartment blocks, large old hotels, , almost empty beaches, and just watching the water . I walked back here along different  back streets, stopping for an omelette  for lunch at a little place near the Alfred Hospital. By the time i got back here I had walked a bit over 15 km. The downside of being quite relaxed is that in a total of 3 stops and 2.5 hours  I could only get 3/4 of the crossword ( guardian cryptic) out. There is a new on tomorrow.

Tuesday and Wednesday

Yesterday, Tuesday, was a day of changed plans. Over my morning coffee and breakfast  I planned an outing which involved going into the city and out again ( public transport limitations, a car would have been possible to avoid the city). However when I walked past the very crowded tram stop on my way back to the hotel, I changed my plan. So I caught a tram southwards, away from the city, to St kilda, walked along the beach for a while. There was a 0 chance of rain predicted, so i did not carry my rain jacket on a longish walk away from shops and coverings like I usually do.  Dark clouds, spots of rain came  so  another change of plan.  I should not have been surprised. I have lived here for 3 years.  I walked east to Elsterwick where there is a gluten free bakery. Elsternwick is much more likely to have bagels than croissants,  but I thought it worth a try. Trouble is, the shop was closed , despite what it said on its website. Oh well, there was a cafe over the road.  And , a change of luck, there was an Officeworks a few shops away which I needed a new lead from.  Then back to hotel.

Today for coffee  I went to a cafe not far from me which is tucked away and would get very little passing traffic. It is frequented by locals. The proprietor knew every person who came in while I was there,  asked about their sick dog or new car or whatever, and most of them knew the other  locals. A nice environment.  In the morning I went into the the city, wandered around some different streets and went to the wool shop again. Then I went a circuitous route to St Paul's , the Anglican cathedral. I wandered around for a bit inside then went to find some food, then went back to the Cathedral for a service, then stayed for their Wednesday lunchtime concert. This time it was a very accomplished pianist and violin player. A new violin  piece by a local composer  who was there, and a Brahms violin sonata. A very pleasant way to spend some time. Then to Southbank to look at an exhibition that the Sri Lankan lady on the hotel desk had said was very good. Luckily the walls of  the room it was in were glass, so I could see in, not really my thing, and luckily there was a sign to say the person in charge was out to lunch, so I didnot have to go in. Then I  sat for a while watching the river while  drinking a green smoothie. I am enjoying my holiday.

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Friday,10th to Monday 13th

It is hard to get a coffee in a place where I can sit on a proper chair at a proper table before 6.30. So on Friday morning early I went a bit further to one which was open and good. I sat in a corner and watched all the locals come and go. It had a European  corner bistro feel to it. Dark timber and furniture, but still enough light to do a crossword. Soon after lunch I went by train to Frankston on the Mornington peninsular. I spent the rest of the weekend with friends John and I made in Melbourne when we were living there 45 ish  years ago. They now live in Rye, right on the tip of the peninsular. We spent a lot of time sitting talking and eating. I saw many of the other towns, how some people live on the ( rather outdatedly  named ) Millionaire's Walk ,  a walk along a right-of-way  narrow strip of land along a cliff top with magnificent views  in front of huge, huge, houses  ( not quite Billionaire's Walk but more than a few million), and a visit to the interesting buildings, those left of the quarantine station at Portsea. 

On Sunday afternoon I was back in time to go to the the weekly Last Post  15 min service at the Shrine of Remembrace. Each week a different group of Australian service men and women are recognised and last Sunday we remembered the people who went to Somalia with the UN in the 1990's. Not far different from where my son-in-law was a few years later.

Yesterday I went for my morning coffee and 1-every-4 days-but-only-if-it--is-good  croissant to Lune in Armadale. There are now several Lunes, started by the lady, an ex formula 1 engineer recently on ABC s Australian Story. It was the best croissant I have ever had in Australia. The only trouble being very light and delicious is that it disappears quickly.  From what I read, each of the Lune's shops is a little different. Most are bakeries, take away only, but this one has a large table you can stand around and 4 tables outside with 2 chairs each, all fixed to the pavement and nice coffee. So my morning criteria were satisfied. I put up with the freezing cold weather. I walked a different way back to my hotel.