Sept
30, Sunday
Turns out it was just across the street in front of St Paul’s Cathedral. As I made my way out of the TIC I saw the bus pull up across the street… and of course the light was red. But luck was with me and the bus waited until everyone had crossed the street. I found the one unoccupied seat on the bus and sat down next to an elderly lady who was out for they day, taking advantage of the free bus to get to the botanical gardens for lunch. She was originally from England and still had her British accent; no hint of an Aussie accent here. She was very interesting and gave me all sorts of advice on what to see in Melbourne.
Eureka Tower in the South Yarra District
Gates to China Town
Intersting art work in one of the plazas
Downtown streets of Melbourne with electric trams
Crossing the Yarra River
More sculptures and street art work. Eureka Tower is the tallest building in Melbourne.
Crossing the Yarra River again, this time on the St. Kilda Road Bridge
I finished the loop after 1 ½ hours and got off again at Federation Square and decided to go into St Paul's
St. Paul's Cathedral
The sun had come out, so instead of going to the Museum, I decided to walk down by the river and cross to Southbank, the area where I had met Melissa the night before.
Flinders Street Station in Federation Square
Crossing the river on one of the pedestrian bridges
Great architecture for this bridge ! Plus spectacular views of the downtown
I decided to go to the Eureka Tower and go up to the Skydeck on the 88th floor to see the views.
From the base of Eureka Tower
Views of Melbourne from the 88th floor of Eureka Tower
From this side you can see the sports complex across the river; on this side are the parks: Alexandra & Victoria Gardens as well as the Music Bowl.
The Botanic Gardens and Government House
Federation Square across the River
St. Paul's Cathedral
The Yarra River. The tiny triangular building on the other side of the river is actually the aquarium. From this height it looks tiny. It is actually quite large.
Horse drawn carriages are available for rides
It was an incredibly beautiful day
And made my way to the Aquarium
Emperor penguins wobbling around
Amazing fish and corals
Jelly fish
Graceful stingrays
And swordfish rays
Some of the tree lined Melbourne downtown streets
I picked up a metro schedule for the line to Brighton and returned to the platform that would take me to Richmond station so that I could switch to the Brighton line.I was fully expecting the train to now go directly from Flinders to Richmond, but for some strange reason the train was now running clockwise and I did the 5-stop city loop in reverse before returning to Richmond station.
The Richmond Metro Train station
The soccer stadium. Oops, No, make that their "foot" ball stadium
The metro trains
My train arrives
My first day visiting Melbourne. I’m still not feeling 100% but I really need
to get out there and visit the city. It
was sprinkling when I left the hotel, but I made my way to the “Middle
Brighton” metro station, about a 10 minute walk away from the hotel, and used
my metro card for the first time. I did
not have a metro map, but had written down the names of the stations that would
take me downtown. Richmond was the stop
where I needed to get off since that was the stop that appeared to be near
Flinders Street and the Tourist Information Centre. Got there, got off the train, swiped the
card to show I had exited the system and went to the information counter to
find out which direction to take to get to the Tourist Information Centre. WRONG STOP !
The guy at the desk explained that I needed to get to the Flinders
Station and pointed me in the right direction to get to the corresponding train
track. Swipe the card to get back into
the station, make my way to the appropriate track, wait for the train, get on
the train. It is doing what is called a
“City Loop” but for some reason instead of heading for Flinders (which would be
the first stop of the 5 stops on the City Loop) it goes in a counter clockwise
pattern. Instead of a 2 minute metro
ride to get to Flinders, it was a 10 minute ride.
OK, I got there anyway so no big deal. When I walked out of the Flinders Station I
spotted the Tourist Information Centre just across the street and made a
bee-line to get there. I enquired about
the Free Shuttle and where I could take it.
Turns out it was just across the street in front of St Paul’s Cathedral. As I made my way out of the TIC I saw the bus pull up across the street… and of course the light was red. But luck was with me and the bus waited until everyone had crossed the street. I found the one unoccupied seat on the bus and sat down next to an elderly lady who was out for they day, taking advantage of the free bus to get to the botanical gardens for lunch. She was originally from England and still had her British accent; no hint of an Aussie accent here. She was very interesting and gave me all sorts of advice on what to see in Melbourne.
Eureka Tower in the South Yarra District
Gates to China Town
Intersting art work in one of the plazas
Downtown streets of Melbourne with electric trams
Crossing the Yarra River
More sculptures and street art work. Eureka Tower is the tallest building in Melbourne.
Crossing the Yarra River again, this time on the St. Kilda Road Bridge
I finished the loop after 1 ½ hours and got off again at Federation Square and decided to go into St Paul's
St. Paul's Cathedral
The sun had come out, so instead of going to the Museum, I decided to walk down by the river and cross to Southbank, the area where I had met Melissa the night before.
Flinders Street Station in Federation Square
Crossing the river on one of the pedestrian bridges
Great architecture for this bridge ! Plus spectacular views of the downtown
I decided to go to the Eureka Tower and go up to the Skydeck on the 88th floor to see the views.
From the base of Eureka Tower
Views of Melbourne from the 88th floor of Eureka Tower
From this side you can see the sports complex across the river; on this side are the parks: Alexandra & Victoria Gardens as well as the Music Bowl.
The Botanic Gardens and Government House
Federation Square across the River
St. Paul's Cathedral
From there I continued my walk along the riverfront
Horse drawn carriages are available for rides
It was an incredibly beautiful day
And made my way to the Aquarium
Emperor penguins wobbling around
Amazing fish and corals
Jelly fish
Graceful stingrays
And swordfish rays
It was 4:30 by the time I came out of the Aquarium and I decided I would simply walk back up Flinders Street to the metro station and return to the hotel.
Came across these totem poles along the way. Totem Poles ! ! !
I picked up a metro schedule for the line to Brighton and returned to the platform that would take me to Richmond station so that I could switch to the Brighton line.I was fully expecting the train to now go directly from Flinders to Richmond, but for some strange reason the train was now running clockwise and I did the 5-stop city loop in reverse before returning to Richmond station.
The Richmond Metro Train station
The soccer stadium. Oops, No, make that their "foot" ball stadium
The metro trains
My train arrives
While I was waiting for the train to Brighton at the Richmond Station I checked out the train schedule I had picked up to check out the times and see how long I would have to wait for the connecting train. Why was Flinders Station showing as the other end of the Brighton Line? I asked a young lady sitting waiting for the same train if the Brighton Line train actually went all the way to Flinders and she confirmed that it did. DAH ! Oh well, I guess there are tourist detours on metro lines as well. When I got off the train at Middle Brighton I decided to look for a pharmacy to try to get some rehydration drinks. Found a pharmacy, but by this time it was closed; it is Sunday today and many shops were closed. I made a mental note to stop in tomorrow morning on my way into the city.
No comments:
Post a Comment