Yarra River Cruise and Odds & Sods

I woke up this morning in Melbourne. If you’ve been following along you probably guessed that seeing as though yesterday’s post was about arriving in Melbourne. Nevertheless, I started this entry with “I woke up this morning in Melbourne” because this is now my fourth city in Australia and I felt the need to remind myself of where I am.

My main activity of this morning, a two-hour cruise on Melbourne’s Yarra River, didn’t start until 11:00. So I had some time to wander a bit before then. That’s the reason “Odds & Sods” in the title of this entry.

Don’t ask me why I used that British expression. Its use in my lifelong home country of Canada is infrequent.

And I have no idea if it’s used here in Australia by anyone other than British tourists and expats. Indeed, how would I know? It’s not like it would arise naturally in any conversation an introverted tourist, such as me, would be likely to have with a local.

“Does my room rate include breakfast?” “Oh, odds and sods.”

“Which wine would you recommend I have with the chicken?” “Odds and sods.”

That isn’t likely to be a natural flow of discourse, now is it? So I don’t know if Aussies use the expression “odds and sods.” It’s just one that popped into my head when I composed the title.

I think the above discussion exceeded the legal limit for claptrap in any one post. So let’s move immediately on to this morning’s odds and sods, shall we?

Flinders Street Station

In yesterday’s entry, I said that I walked by a very handsome train station. I also said that I might duck inside sometime during my time in Melbourne.

It’s Flinders Street Station. I did indeed pop inside to see if its interior is equally handsome. It’s not.

The interior is quite utilitarian. It seems to be a commuter train station. You can’t penetrate far into it without confronting fare gates.

From what I could see, it’s something of a Potemkin train station. Beyond the handsome facade and the not particularly wide, serviceable internal concourse, the tracks appear to be exposed to the elements.

Block and Royal Arcades

After checking out the Flinders Street Station, I visited a couple of shopping arcades, the Block Arcade and the Royal Arcade. Like the Brisbane Arcade and Adelaide Arcade, the Block and Royal Arcades are charming, human-scale shopping halls with small independent stores and restaurants. The Block Arcade was built between 1891 and 1893 and the Royal Arcade was built in 1869.

In my opinion, the Block Arcade is the most attractive of the two. It has beautiful mosaic tiled floors, and charming moldings and other decorations on the wood walls. The arcade is “L”-shaped, with a small, glass-ceilinged rotunda at the joint of the L.

One of the shops in the Block Arcade is the charming Hopetoun Tea Rooms. It’s been in the arcade since the arcade opened.

Unlike the Brisbane and Adelaide Arcades, the Block Arcade’s shops are only on one level, but I think there are some levels of offices above.

The Royal Arcade is also quite quaint but, to my eye, it has slightly less panache than the Block Arcade. Although, one thing that the Block Arcade has is skylights that run the length of the halls, letting in lots of natural light.

To my mind, the two arcades should switch names. How is the slightly less majestic one called “Royal Arcade,” while the slightly more majestic one is just “Block Arcade?” The royals should complain.

Are these sorts of elegant shopping arcades particular to Australia? (I’ve seen four of them here now.) Did cities in other countries have them, but have demolished them? Or do they exist everywhere and the only reason I’m not aware of them is that I’ve been totally unobservant elsewhere? I’m willing to believe either of those possibilities, particularly the latter.

The Yarra River

I then walked down to the Yarra River and along the walks on both sides of it, but just restricted to the downtown core. My walk gave me a nice view of the river and the high-rises near it.

I posted a picture here of a train running into the Sea Life Aquarium, as seen from the other side of the river. In fact, the train is running behind, not into the aquarium. But you probably guessed that.

About that aquarium, I won’t be visiting it. I was thinking about going there. But I looked at its website yesterday. It has a special price of just $37.60 (AUD), but its big oceanarium tank, the major attraction, is closed for “an exciting renovation.” In the meantime, they have a “spectacular new immersive digital experience for you to enjoy.” Yeah, no, I don’t think so.

On the promenade on one side of the Yarra River, very close to the departure point for my cruise, sits a large, mosaic tile statue that is highly derivative of Picasso. Google Maps told me it’s titled “Ophelia” and is by Deborah Halpern. As I never tire of shamefully admitting, I’m an art ignoramus, but I stand by my assessment of it being derivative of Picasso. I’ll post a picture and you can judge for yourself.

Yarra River Cruise

When I booked the Yarra River Cruise I took this morning, Viator, the booking engine I purchased it on, sold it as a two-hour “Highlights of Melbourne Cruise.” It turns out it was two consecutive cruises on the same boat. I could have bought just one if I wanted to, although I didn’t know that when I bought my ticket. The first cruise went upstream along the river for a half-hour, returned to its starting point to let off passengers who were only taking one cruise and pick up new ones, and then went downriver for a half hour and returned to the starting point.

I’m glad I bought both, even if unwittingly.

(The 11:00 cruise, the one I started on, was the first cruise of the day, so everyone on that one was doing their first cruise.)

The boat was of the nature of an Amsterdam tourist canal boat. It’s a flat-bottomed boat, with a flat roof. Some of the big windows can slide open. Rows of five moveable seats were arranged on both sides of a centre aisle.

Apple Photos tells me that the last time I was in Amsterdam was in 2012, so I might be misremembering, but I think the boat today was wider and longer than the typical Amsterdam tourist canal boat. Of course, if you’re not at all familiar with Amsterdam canal boats, that won’t mean anything to you. Google can probably help you with that.

I was one of the first to board the boat, so I got a good window seat. Shortly after I boarded, a large school group of young children also boarded. They all wore identical blue bucket hats. The adults supervising them weren’t required to wear those hats. One of them wore a Toronto Blue Jays cap. I heard him speak once. I’m fairly certain he’s not a Toronto native.

The school kids talked loudly nonstop throughout the upstream Yarra River cruise. The cruise had a running, automated commentary about what we saw on the banks of the river. The kids didn’t quite drown out the commentary. I think their teachers failed them for that. They’ll have to talk at a higher volume on future field trips if they want to graduate from elementary school.

A short distance beyond the downtown starting point, grass, trees, and broader parks dominated the scenery. It was quite beautiful.

When we returned to the starting point, the school group got off. They only booked the upriver cruise. YAY!

A large, collection of mixed adults boarded in their case. Some were independent travellers, but there was also a fair-sized tour group among them. The tour group talked throughout the downstream cruise. They weren’t quite as loud or high-pitched as the kids, but it was still slightly annoying.

The downstream Yarra River cruise took us past a lot of Melbourne’s tall downtown buildings and to Melbourne’s huge port. There, several cargo ships were docked in various states of loading or unloading. The port can handle both container ships and liquid transport ships. (That is, they transport liquids. They weren’t liquid boats because, how exactly would that work?)

Huge cranes make short work of loading and unloading the container ships.

After cruising through much of the port, the boat returned to the starting point where I got off, having completed my allotment cruises.

Lunch

It was about 1:15 when the boat docked and I disembarked. By then, I was getting excessively peckish. Fortunately, a nice-looking restaurant sat just on the other side of the promenade along which the boat docked, saving me from perishing from hunger.

I went in and ordered and consumed a very tasty seafood linguine, with a glass of wine chaser. With that, I was recharged and ready to tackle the afternoon. But that’s fodder for another post.