I went on a walking tour of Melbourne with Phillip, and also Tina, and I really enjoyed myself. This time the tour was of inner city Melbourne, through Fitzroy, Clifton Hill and Melbourne; around 15 miles all up over about 4 hours.
I took so many photos of places and things but I'll just post a few of them and maybe some separate posts another time.
Food: Always the highlight of any tour. We went to two places: Babka in Fitzroy and the A1 Lebanese bakery in Brunswick. Both were brilliant: Babka with its delectable, melt in your mouth pastries (I had the best sticky bun!). The line almost outside the door for a table was proof of that. And A1 must be the cheapest place in Melbourne to eat; two courses and a drink for each of us was about $20 (dessert for the three of us was $6 for a plate of not too sweet baklava).
The most expensive thing on the menu at the A1 restaurant: $6.50 for the sausage pizza.
Melbourne's oldest retirement village: One of the places on the tour was Rushall Park, which in a roundabout way is the oldest retirement village in Melbourne established in 1869. It's the most amazing place and you can read more about the background here: http://www.ocav.asn.au/.
We were lurking around the main gate wondering what to do when one of the residents came out and invited us to take a tour with her; it was wonderful and she took us past her little cottage and told us all about why Rushall Park was even started, and how to get in there.
Our guide's cottage built in 1891.
The main street of the Village.
Architecture: We saw various examples of architecture from the late 19th century, which was such a beautiful time. One of my favourites was the lacework on a home in North Fitzroy.
This closeup shows part of the lacework.
Another highlight was the Fitzroy town hall, library and court house. So much of what's impressive in Victoria, especially, are buildings erected using gold rush money and this building is one of the best examples.
I wish this was the entrance to my local library.
More modern sights: One of the really nice things about the inner city suburbs is their interest in the arts and I love how they actually spend money on this sort of thing.
One example was this gorgeous tiled seat, which sits on bottom end of Fitzroy Street, near Victoria Parade.
The seat, complete with evidence of last night's excited: two beer bottles at either end.
Antiques: And the last thing is the wonderful antique stores everywhere, closed because it was Sunday. The one I like best was Ron's in Clifton Hill; the stock in the window was brilliant and I really want to go back one Saturday when it's open.
Phil and xxxx engrossed in the plaque on the wall at Ron's antiques.
The plaque itself, with no translation to help with what it means.
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