Friendly Melbourne

Melbourne is a friendly city.  I found the people approachable and relaxed.  Unlike every city I've visited (except London), people in the street would meet my eye.  Smiling was commonplace.  It felt somewhat like New Zealand in the sixties. By that I mean genuine, intimate and on friendly terms.*

I was struck by how confident the contemporary inner-city architecture was too.  Risky colours, interesting shapes, and wonderful juxtapositions.

RMIT University building,
Swanston Street.

There's a 'brain' on the roof.
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... and inside it's wonderful too.
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Here's a strange and wondrous building that has a hole in it...

Here is an image I found on the internet that shows the cone that was erected over a shot tower, now a feature of a shopping mall and railway station.
(Shot towers were very important in colonial times.  Molten lead dripped from very high up meant that the shot balls were almost nicely spherical and solidified by the time they reached the bottom.)

Inside it looks like this.

Shot tower, Central Mall.

It's a huge mall, but on the hour, tourists stand around in one particular area and out come the cameras for the musical clock.
A charming reminder of a bygone age.
It's really lame.

The Melbourne musical clock:  The bottom slides out and the imps
 and birds wriggle and bob backwards and forwards
 while 'Waltzing Matilda' plays.

Melbourne.
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Of course there are plenty of lovely old buildings too. This is St Paul's Cathedral on the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets.

St Paul's Cathedral.

Melbourne Town Hall on the left.

I rather liked the tiers of pansies outside the town hall.

Flowers outside the Town Hall.

Of course no self-respecting city is complete without at least one, preferably many, bird-annointed statues of famous people.

Statue of Matthew Finders outside St Paul's.

I was struck by the startling mustard-coloured stone of the famous and oft-photographed landmark that is the Flinders Railway Station building.

Flinders Railways Station. 

It goes on forever down the street there.

 This is what it looks like from just inside that arched entrance.

Rush hour crowds and St Paul's Cathedral from Flinders Station main entrance

"I'll have one of those pink roses right at the top there, thank you."

Flower stall,  Flinders Station.

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Next time:  The amazing NGV (National Gallery of Victoria).

* not - as New Zealand in the sixties also was - naive, parochial and culturally insecure.