15/04/2022 On The Streets Of St Kilda: Melbourne

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 I haven't spent all my time in Melbourne walking the dog, riding the home owner's bicycle, and touring Golf Safari Parks.  Indeed I've spent a good deal of time hanging out with Daughter, doing general hanging out things in a no-one else's business kind of way.

During all this hanging out I discovered that Daughter, limited as she is to public transport, had not had the chance to visit some parts of Melbourne with which I had become familiar by bike.  We headed out on Easter Friday to remedy this lack, driving up the Esplanade all the way to Sandridge Beach, where we parked the car and walked out to Sandridge Lookout.

Sandridge beach with city backdrop.

While walking we were treated to a display of feeding seagulls, all diving ferociously into the water in search of fish.


The seagull displays put us in mind of dinner so we headed off to hunt and gather at St Kilda, fearing that pickings would be slim on Good Friday evening.

Well, we were wrong about that, weren't we? St Kilda was quite the happening place to be.

We found the grand old  Palais Theatre:

which was right next to Luna Park with its kind of creepy walk-through-the-mouth entry;

and it's rickety sounding roller coaster complete with ride staff standing on board for the round trip.


St Kilda was full of people, trams, bicycles, and drunks doing happy dances in the middle of the street.  We found ourselves an eating establishment that boasted, among other musical items, an inbuilt piano.

Not that it was exactly playable, of  course.

We wandered around St Kilda taking photographs, because that's what Daughter and I do when we get together. Oh, and searching for gelato, which was surprisingly difficult to find.

We were relentless in our quest, traipsing up and down the streets of St Kilda as Google led us from one closed/out-of-business gelatery to another until we finally stumbled upon our prize barely two doors down from  where we had started.  The moral of this tale being  that when you are looking for gelato it pays to use your eyes in  the old-fashioned manner, in addition to (or instead of) blindly following Google.

Success!

On our way back  to the car we discovered that the roller coaster is actually called the Great Scenic Railway, which doesn't make it any less rickety although it did look a lot prettier in the dark.


I delivered Daughter to her front door without having to ask  directions of our gelato-deficient Google Maps, an indication  that I was becoming disturbingly familiar with this little patch of Melbourne. And to think that barely two years ago I'd only ever driven through Melbourne once in my whole life!

The dog was touchingly happy to see me.  It's always nice to be welcomed home by a happy dog.

Gratuitous picture of happy dancing dog.




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