Emily kindly leant me her Myki card, which is rather like an Oyster card in London. No paper tickets anymore on any public transport......
technology rules ! It is an hour on the train to Flinders St Station from Frankston and the total cost was $8.60 for the entire day - around £5. When you consider the ticket for the five stations from Pulborough to Gatwick Airport costs around £13 for a single journey it does not even bear comparison. The train stopped at 27 stations on this journey, and some places were so close together even I could have walked between stops ! In some ways it was a bit ridiculous!
Setting off !
The interesting thing was seeing the names of all the small townships enroute, the main ones for me were....wait for it -
Seaford
Armadale
McKinnon
Chelsea
Cheltenham
Glen Huntley
I think we can safely say that both Scottish and English folk have living in this part of the world for a very long time !
The three I took !
The station at Flinders St was quite magnificent, a beautiful Victorian building, ornate and large with all the signs of the opulence of that new world era. I was delighted that the city is such a mix of old and new buildings - it seems that pulling down old colonial or historic buildings did not happen in Melbourne so the city has such a pretty and cosy feel. The St Paul’s Cathedral was directly opposite the station and again a glorious building with a distinct feel of Chichester or Gloucester ! Emily has sung here numerous times, the most recent being a performance of the Rachmaninov Vespers for Mezzo and Tenor soloists plus choir and orchestra. I paid my $5 so I could take photos !
Flinders St Station
The Cathedral
Three layers of architecture- Victorian flat front buildings, the Cathedral, modern Melbourne!
The Windsor Hotel
Amazing Docklands modern apartment buildings.
I took the city loop free tram after leaving the station and thus in an hour saw a full circle of the city which was a great way of covering lots of ground that I could never have hoped to on foot. We passed the beautiful parliament building, the Windsor Hotel, the Rod Laver Arena which is mostly tennis of course - I think there are pop concerts there too. The Docklands area is very modern much like the London Docklands, and very expensive I imagine !
The tram returned to Flinders St and it was time for a late lunch. I wandered the lanes which are small pedestrian ways behind the main thoroughfare full of tiny coffee houses, cafes, arty shops and ethnic restaurants. Here I found an amazing little cafe called Grill’d which served a gorgeous burger with cheese and bacon on a freshly made low carb bun made of almond meal and coconut flour - this country is fast winning me over with the amount of low carb food available for a diabetic !!
My mammoth burger in a low carb bun - heavenly !
After this very late lunch I hopped back on the train for my journey back to Frankston where Emily was waiting for me in the car park. It was a great day and I am so glad I decided to make the journey. My Melbourne adventure comes to a halt tomorrow when I board the Golden Princess at Port Melbourne for my cruise along South Australia then over to Bali, Kuala Lumpur, and finally three days in Singapore before returning to Blighty!
It will be a sad goodbye in the morning.
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