We took a tram to the east side of town and had a look at a couple of impressive buildings. The first were St Peters Church and St Patricks Cathedral.
We then moved on to look at the Parliment buildings in the same area. Suitably impressed we walked back to Federation Square where we found a company which hired bikes by the hour. We had been told that a great way to see a lot of the city was to hire a bike so we thought we better give it a go! After handing over our cash we were on our way. The city has lots of cycle lanes and as it is mostly on a grid system it is fairly easy to navigate around. We headed south towards Albert Park. There were a couple of logical reasons for this. Firstly, it is home to the Australian Grand Prix (which is to be hosted there in a couple of weeks) and secondly it is also home to the Melbourne Aquatic Centre. The park itself is huge and in the centre is a large boating lake. There is a running path all the way around the lake and lots of playgrounds for kids.
The main road around the lake is the grand prix track, which for 11.5 months of the year is the park access road. However it is still lined with crash barriers and advertising hoardings so it was impressive to see and be able to cycle around! Gav recognised a lot of the corners and is now looking forward to watching the race in a few weeks even more!
After this we headed to the aquatic centre with the aim of having a swim. When we arrived we see there a swimming competition in the outdoor 50m commonwealth pool. It brought back many memories for us both of when we used to compete. The sound of the races starting, the smell of Chlorine, the buzz of competing! We headed in to watch a bit of the action. Alongside the outdoor pool was a wave machine that was for practicing surfing. There were a few people practicing their techniques which was really good to watch. All of the other (4) swimming pools were really busy as it was the weekend so we decided to come back later in the week for a swim.
Back on our bikes we headed further around the park to the pit straight of the Grand Prix circuit for some snaps before leaving the park and heading for the beach.
We arrived in St Kilda, where Melbourne meets the sea! There is a beautiful beach here and lots of people soaking up the sun, walking up and down the boardwalk or sat in the beach front cafes. There is also a huge pier sticking out into the sea – probably the longest pier we have ever seen!
We carried on along the beach further and came across an international beach volleyball tournament. There was lots of activity here with stalls giving away free samples, competitions and prizes. We locked up our bikes and had a wander around and grabbed some lunch before sitting and watching the ‘celebrity’ match between the major competitions. We didn’t recognise any of the celebs but I am sure they are well known in Oz! One of them was the winner of the previous years tournament, which was obvious when she claimed the winning point straight from her serve! There were other athletes and sports stars playing. The viewing area was a large boardwalk with big beanbags from the sponsor – Garnier. It was a really good atmosphere and we would have stayed longer but had to cycle the 10km back to the city to return the bikes.
We got up some speed on the way home and enjoyed the cool breeze! We both enjoyed investigating by bike and would recommend it highly!
We wanted to see Melbourne at night so headed back to the hostel for an early tea. Guess what we had..... Pasta!! We did find an Aldi supermarket near the hostel so bought some more adventurous food for the next few days. On our walk back into the city we ventured through China Town.
It was interesting to see all the little shops selling gadgets and trinkets to the Chinese tourists and locals. Our next stop was Hosier Lane which is very famous for the street art work that lines the walls. There is a wide and varied collection of paintings on the walls, from small intricate designs, to images which cover the whole face of a building. Some famous artists including ‘Banksy’ have work on display there. We felt a little bit out of our comfort zone in the dark alley at night time, but everything was ok and we think we were just being a bit paranoid!
We took the bridge across the Yarra River and dropped down on to Southbank. Much like the Embankment in London is it lined with eateries, shops and numerous street entertainers. In the darkness of the night and with the backdrop of the city it was brought to life!
We were looking for a bar called ‘Chill On’ which is a bar completely made from Ice. We had a voucher to go in. Unfortunately we could not find. Our legs were aching from all the walking and cycling so defeated we jumped on a tram back from the hostel.
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