{"id":1163,"date":"2018-11-09T06:07:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T06:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/?p=1163"},"modified":"2019-04-27T16:43:28","modified_gmt":"2019-04-27T15:43:28","slug":"melbourne-strangely-familiar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/2018\/11\/09\/melbourne-strangely-familiar\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne – strangely familiar"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"11\/8\/18\"<\/p>\n

So here we staying on the south bank of the Yarra river, surrounded by art centres and bars and restaurants.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"11\/9\/18\"<\/p>\n

Looking one way is a familiar looking road bridge (this one pre-dates Southwark bridge by 40 years)<\/p>\n

\"11\/8\/18\"<\/p>\n

The city motto and crest are on the bridge: roughly translated it means – ‘he who travels grows’ from Virgil – (we take note) hopefully not just around the tummy…<\/p>\n

\"11\/9\/18\"<\/p>\n

And the other way is a foot bridge<\/p>\n

\"11\/9\/18\"<\/p>\n

Directly opposite are city skyscrapers. There are plane trees, sparrows, foxgloves (!) pigeons, blackbirds, cool temperatures and a familiar grey sky..<\/p>\n

\"11\/8\/18\"<\/p>\n

But among the plane trees are palm trees; with the pigeons and seagulls are strutting miner birds; the pretty ducklings on the river are not mallards but Australian wood ducks; and taking the tram to St Kilda\u2019s we find seaside, a pretty pier Kiosk, recently restored,<\/p>\n

\"11\/8\/18\"<\/p>\n

And… penguins!<\/p>\n

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These are Little penguins (their name and size) and are the cutest I have seen.<\/p>\n

\"11\/8\/18\"<\/p>\n

If you go just before sunset you can see the chicks (and tourists) waiting patiently for their parents to return from fishing.<\/p>\n

\"11\/8\/18\"<\/p>\n

\"11\/8\/18\"<\/p>\n

Then just as it gets dark the parents return and make their way over rocks and through throngs of tourists back to their young.<\/p>\n

On the shore, Melbourne sparkled in the sunset<\/p>\n

\"11\/8\/18\"<\/p>\n

The next day we followed a \u2018lanes and alleys\u2019 city walk and found it very familiar:<\/p>\n

Bijoux stationers,<\/p>\n

\"11\/9\/18\"<\/p>\n

European style arcades<\/p>\n

\"11\/9\/18\"<\/p>\n

\"11\/9\/18\"<\/p>\n

Statues to 19th century men (Flinders looks like anyone would with a seagull on his head)<\/p>\n

\"11\/8\/18\"<\/p>\n

Art Deco, Victorian & modern buildings,<\/p>\n

\"11\/9\/18\"<\/p>\n

\"11\/9\/18\"<\/p>\n

\"11\/9\/18\"<\/p>\n

The newly renovated Flinders station,<\/p>\n

\"11\/9\/18\"<\/p>\n

Street art (mostly not a patch on Shoreditch)<\/p>\n

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\"11\/9\/18\"<\/p>\n

Even aboriginal art is ironically appropriating western contemporary affectation<\/p>\n

\"11\/9\/18\"<\/p>\n

I visited the Victoria art gallery which has some very familiar names and plenty of excellent 19th century art. Here is a Tissot- two young ladies bored to death,<\/p>\n

\"11\/9\/18\"<\/p>\n

Landseer\u2019s scene of Titania with Bottom – the rabbit apparently inspired Lewis Carrol,<\/p>\n

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Elizabeth Thompson\u2019s dramatic portrayal of the brave defenders at Quatre Bras (2 days before Waterloo)<\/p>\n

\"11\/9\/18\"<\/p>\n

And from Waterhouse, one of my favourites, the sirens and Ulysses,<\/p>\n

\"11\/9\/18\"<\/p>\n

Then there was one that was a reminder of where I really am:<\/p>\n

\"11\/9\/18\"<\/p>\n

Walking towards the river there are boathouses and rowers<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s a punt in the beautiful Botanical gardens<\/p>\n

\"11\/9\/18\"<\/p>\n

\"11\/9\/18\"<\/p>\n

After red earth and blazing skies we feel like we are back home …but not quite.<\/p>\n

Now we are looking forward to visiting David\u2019s cousin Annie and meeting her daughter Mika for the first time this evening!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  So here we staying on the south bank of the Yarra river, surrounded by art centres and bars and restaurants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1163"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1752,"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163\/revisions\/1752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.holloway.me.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}