It is Sunday! A great day for a drive! We are going to go to Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market and then to visit some beaches to see some VERY expensive property! Let’s go! First, navigating to the CBD of Melbourne with Andrew driving – quite a task! We made it to the CBD however soon we realized that we had to go right, and as I mentioned yesterday, we ran into a hook turn! I was SO GLAD I had learned about them! Here is how Google describes them –
“A hook turn in Melbourne is a right-hand turn made from the far-left lane at designated intersections, which are common in the city’s CBD where trams operate. This maneuver allows cars to turn right without blocking tram lanes by first moving into the intersection from the left, stopping in a designated area on the far side, and then completing the turn when the light for the road they are entering turns green.”
Do you want to see a video about it? Check this out: https://youtu.be/813AJZdX5HY
We were successful on our first try! Yahoo! Soon we arrived at the parking area for Queen Victoria Market where I saw some Accessible parking signs along with some metre spots. We saw an empty accessible spot and I checked Google (my friend) and sure enough, if you have your placard, you get to park for free for the time listed – in this case 2 hours! Bonus! Now, let us go shopping!
The SHED (that is an Aussie term for a tin roofed building) that the Queen Victoria Market is under is HUGE and is very well organized! As we walked in from the parking area, there were lots of Aisles with letters and each store was listed with a number on a chart – so they were pretty permanent stalls in the market. Starting with A and up to about G – those were all merchandise stalls. Then came the produce and those kinds of stalls in the aisles after that. Across the lane was a building, where we ended up for some food – which had a food fair, and it also shared space in that shed with the seafood and meat part of the market. The Market runs 5 days a week – not on Mondays or Wednesdays which I found interesting!
When walking the Aisles and trying NOT to buy anything, I ran into a Syrian store with a very nice gentleman from Aleppo, which is a city in Syria. I surprised him with the two Arabic words that I know – hello and thank-you and he was QUITE the sales man – basically sucking up to Andrew to get me to purchase things! He even offered Andrew a chair to sit in while I shopped! I did get a couple of items from his store – that was about all that I got at the Queen Victoria Markets. I was good!
We eventually went across the lane to the food fair and I was pretty excited to find some Singapore Noodles, which are made with rice noodles, curry, scrambled eggs, chicken and shrimp that could be made gluten free! Andrew and I shared the dish before going back to the car and driving out to the beaches we wanted to see!
Now, back in the car, we are driving to St. Kilda Beach – which is a pretty well known beach south of Melbourne. Along the way we saw some really nice wrought iron on buildings and some art deco buildings. Eventually we arrived at the St. Kilda Beach! We drove past the Marina, the pier and then past the salt water Bath House! Eventually we made it to a park where there was a beach we could get out and look around – it was beautiful – waves crashing in on such a pristine beach!
Then we continued driving to some of the most expensive real estate in the Melbourne area based on square footage – no, these are not houses on the street – these are the famous beach houses of Brighton Beach! Some of these beach houses which have no electricity or plumbing sell for upwards of a million dollars! Most are passed down in families for use during the summer beach days. Formally called “Bathing Boxes” most were built between 1907 and 1933 with a total of 93 bathing boxes on the beach today. As you can see they are painted very unique colours representing patriotism or family heritage. Right now, other than a place to change your clothes for the beach, they are primarily used to store beach equipment and for gatherings of family and friends. I must admit the beach in front of them was not that large – so it must be quite crowded during the full summer months!
However the beach for me was a trove of sea treasurers – shells! I have acquired an assortment of them that I hope will make their way home in one piece! First, here are the pictures of the Beach House and Lifeguard Station and the path down to the beach which we traveled. It was a nice walk however Andrew did mumble something about seeing an elevator – however I thought that was strange as they had a path so we proceeded down the path! Soon we found ourselves at the bottom in front of the Lifeguard station where they were hosing down their equipment (and the picture I took the guy is hosing down his legs) from the beach and putting it away for the night. It was only about 4 pm however I guess they close up shop early! We then proceeded onto the beach to view the bathing boxes!
Here is a wonderful view of the bathing boxes along the beach with Andrew the subject of the picture! See what I mean about the beach not being very long in front of the boxes! I was able to walk along the part of the sand where the waves were coming in as it was fairly solid for a fair ways to view the boxes and also the shells at my feet!
We then drove back to the hotel, which was not that far away. St. Kilda and Brighton Beach are suburbs of Melbourne, just like Richmond, so it was actually a fairly short drive back to Richmond, where we were staying. Next to our hotel is the Yarra River, which runs through Melbourne, this is a picture of it and the park that surrounds it.
Now it is time to pack as tomorrow is a BIG day – we are flying back to Adelaide in order to join the Indian Pacific Train as it travels from Perth to Sydney. You can get on in Perth and travel all the way to Sydney, however due to the high cost of this train, I thought that the 2 night, 3 day experience from Adelaide would be awesome for Andrew’s introduction to Australian Luxury trains! Now, to pack…and ensure our luggage is under 23 kg! More tomorrow!