It was hard to drag ourselves away from our little Miner’s Cottage in Walhalla but today we were heading to Hastings on the Mornington Peninsular to visit friends. We’d been promising to visit them for as long as I can remember, they probably thought we’d never make it … just goes to show!
We’d been guests at their wedding forty years ago and so how could we not come over to Oz to celebrate their Ruby wedding anniversary? It was also my friend’s husband’s birthday so there were two things to celebrate.
Considering neither of them drink, well my friend a little but compared to our consumption it’s a drop in the old wine glass, it was kind of them to take us to a vineyard after lunch. It was a good choice, Stumpy Gully wine is very quaffable and of course I ended up buying a bottle …for later. The setting there is delightful, no wonder the restaurant has a great reputation along with their wines and a very romantic place to celebrate a wedding too I would imagine.
The next day we caught the train into Melbourne arriving at the bustling Flinders Street Station. We walked around a little to get our bearings and then headed to one of the aboriginal art galleries, Koorie Heritage Trust in Federation Square.
These designs are amazing and I loved the display of the rolled towers in one of the galleries at the museum. After a refreshing cup of tea for me and coffee for my man we were off to see art of a different kind.
Hosier Lane in Melbourne is a lane full of urban street art, graffiti if you like. Even the wheelie bins are painted! One thing the guide book doesn’t tell you about is the smell, presumably at night this area is a refuge for rough sleepers.
After the mind-blowing effect of so much grafitti we headed back to Federation Square to The Ian Potter Centre which has a fabulous collection of art and is part of the National Gallery of Victoria. You could spend a whole day in there and it’s free admission. Here’s my favourite painting, it’s a bit ‘off-kilter’ but that’s the photographer not the hanging!
We decided to do as much as possible before lunch (as you can probably tell!) so our next stop was St Paul’s Cathedral. As an ordination service was about to start we weren’t able to have a good look round. The architecture apparently is neo-Gothic, partly early English and partly decorated. It’s a fairly austere building designed by an English architect but he certainly didn’t (in my opinion) try to copy any of our classic Cathedrals.
Now it definitely was time for lunch so we walked across Princes Bridge and found an excellent cafe along the riverside just in time to escape a torrential downpour! Fortunately when we were ready to leave the weather had sorted itself out so we headed back to the centre by Flinder’s Station and caught one of the ionic free City Circle trams, route number 35. After our free tour we just had time to pop into the other part of the National Gallery of Victoria before heading for the train back to Hastings for a celebration meal cooked by our hosts. Loved the traditional Aussie pumpkin soup, delicious!
As much as we enjoyed our trip to Melbourne we’re not really city people. We enjoyed being on the coast blowing a few cobwebs away and our friends were great guides and know all the pretty harbours and walkways.
All too soon it was time to leave although it wasn’t a final farewell as we were coming back to Hastings after the next part of our trip. So it was goodbye to Mornington Peninsular as we headed off to The Great Ocean Drive. The most direct route was by ferry first. Just forty minutes across what is known as Victory Bight from Sorrento to Queenscliff avoiding a long drive via Melbourne, and we saw dolphins, a real treat. More about the drive and our stay in The Grampians in the next blog.
Travels with the Booths.blog 