Saluting a vigorous street life: Melbourne

Federation Square is Melbourne's main meeting place.

“What do you like best about Melbourne?” a friend asked me. I think the answer has to be the energetic and energizing activity on the streets.

My second morning here I participated in a tour led by a volunteer with the Melbourne Greeter Service. http://www.thatsmelbourne.com.au/visitors/services/greeter/Pages/GreeterService.aspx

One of the tour stops was in Hosier Lane. This and other lanes are filled with ever changing street art.

Creating street art in Hosier Lane.

The same weekend a two day art event featured a display in Federation Square, the main downtown meeting place where something is always happening.

Bed Square in Federation Square, part of Mel+Art event.

Other days in Fed Square I saw various promotions for fitness and sport including a touring display of the Asian Cup for football (soccer) to be contested in January 2015 in Australia. 

The cup tour was billed as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for fans to see and be photographed with the AFC Asian Cup. Not being sports oriented, I didn’t get a photo of it but another day did get one of a Zumba dance demo that people eagerly joined in.

Zumba demo attracts participants. 

Two days after the visit of the Asian cup, a crowd gathered across the street outside Flinders Street Station to see Australian race driver Daniel Ricciardo promoting the Australian Grand Prix to be held in Melbourne in March.

Driver Daniel Ricciardo promotes the Australian Grand Prix.

This being the Christmas season, there are almost daily outdoor performances by various local choirs.

Carols by a school choir.

What if it rains or the sun is just too hot? At Fed Square there is covered, open space in the Atrium. One day I heard a gospel choir there and another day watched a graceful Chinese exercise class. I also saw a group of women crocheting poppies in preparation for Anzac Day in April.

Volunteers crochet poppies for Anzac Day 2105.

Bourke Street is a pedestrian mall except for the trams that travel it and Melbourne’s large Chinatown is also bustling with activity. Many lanes reveal numerous cafes and shops, some quite tiny.

Even on a rainy day cafes in the lanes are busy.

The streets are packed with people almost all day and numerous buskers ply their trade. So far it’s never dull on the streets of Melbourne’s city centre.

One of the gates to Chinatown.

Recognizing bold women

As I travel I am drawn to women’s history.

Women are persons - 1929 Canadian victory.

Currently exploring Melbourne, Australia, I was delighted to discover the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden in King’s Domain. Established in 1934 as part of the city’s centenary celebrations, the garden acknowledges the contributions of women to the early development of the state of Victoria. Gardens and history, two of my favourite interests, in one place.

Melbourne's Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden.

Also in Melbourne I learned more about Australian and Victorian history at the Old Treasury Building, which houses gold vaults from the gold rush era as well as rare and historic documents from the Public Records Office (state archives). 

Australia’s first women’s suffrage organization was formed in 1884 by Henrietta Dugdale and Annie Lowe. The Old Treasury Building has on display the 1891 Victorian Women’s Suffrage Petition, aka the Monster Petition, with nearly 30,000 signatures supporting women’s right to vote. The petition was entered into the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register in 2008. Australian women gained the right to vote in federal elections in 1902.

1891 Victorian Women’s Suffrage Petition.

In Ottawa, Canada recently, I visited the sculptures on Parliament Hill commemorating The Persons’ Case which acknowledges the 1929 legal victory of a group of Alberta women who had struggled for years for women to be appointed to the Canadian Senate. 

While women had the right to vote in Canadian federal elections from 1919 and the first woman, Agnes McPhail, was elected to the House of Commons in 1921, the Canadian government had continued to deny women’s right of appointment to the Senate. 

Canada's Famous Five sculpture on Parliament Hill, Ottawa.

The British Privy Council, the last court of appeal at the time, overturned the previous ruling of Canada’s Supreme Court, stating that the word persons in The British North America Act of 1867 includes women, thus making them eligible to sit in the Senate. 

Judge Emily Murphy, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney, Nellie McLung, and Irene Parlby became known as the Famous Five and the Persons’ Case had broader implications for women’s right to participate fully in public life. 

This entry is dedicated to the memory of my late mother Betty who was her own woman in her own quiet way. 

Revisiting Montreal's Expo 67 site

Autumn leaves brighten Buckminster Fuller's iconic geodesic dome.

In Montreal I have just had the opportunity to visit Parc Jean-Drapeau on Île Sainte-Hélène and Île Notre-Dame, site of Expo 67. 

Expo 67 site is now Parc Jean-Drapeau, named for the mayor who initiated Expo 67.

Shadowing the great detective

Sherlock Holmes is an honorary citizen of Meringen, Switzerland.

A long-time admirer of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famed detective, Sherlock Holmes, I was delighted recently when I visited friends in Switzerland and they proposed a day trip to Reichenbach Falls. Holmes’ fans will know this as the place where he fought the evil Professor Moriarty in 1891, with both apparently falling to their deaths over the falls.

Reichenbach Falls, Switzerland.

  

We took a funicular then hiked to the top of Reichenbach Falls and later visited the Sherlock Holmes museum in nearby Meiringen where Holmes has been declared an honorary citizen. The museum has faithfully created the sitting room of Holmes and Watson as described in the stories.

Holmes and Watson's living room at Sherlock Holmes Museum in Meiringen.

The Holmes sites in Switzerland attract pilgrims.

As you may know, Doyle relented in the face of his readers’ grief and rage at the news of Holmes death. Three years later Doyle started writing more stories about Holmes, explaining that the detective had survived the battle at the falls but faked his death to trick other enemies.

Outside Meiringen museum.

My favourite Holmes movies are those with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law: Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Sherlock Holmes: A game of shadows (2011). Earlier this summer I had reread several Sherlock Holmes stories and watched two Sherlock Holmes made for television movies – The Case of the Silk Stocking (2004) and The Hound of the Baskervilles (2002). 

In the Meiringen museum.

In 2003 my late husband and I enjoyed a visit to the Sherlock Holmes museum on Baker Street in London. However, I had not expected to have the chance to see another Sherlock Holmes site. 

Holmes' presence is felt in London's Baker Street underground station.

Walking the dog here and there

Walking with Amy & Samba in The Netherlands, April 2013.

I’m feeling disconnected. There is no leash in my hand or canine companion at my side. I have just completed another dog sitting gig and I am once again walking alone.

Daphne in Australia wonders if it is too hot for a walk, December 2013.

In the past couple of years I have walked dogs in Canada, Australia and the Netherlands. For me this has been an everyday life experience in a home away from home. 

Samba enjoys a walk in The Netherlands, July 2014.

Sometimes the few weeks caring for a dog as part of a house and dog sit has given respite from the intensity of visiting museums, churches and other cultural and historic sights while travelling.

Tess in Canada wonders if it is too cold for a walk, December 2012.

Walking other people's dogs has provided a structure to my day, exercise, time in nature and time for reflection. Would I get my own dog? No, I have no desire to be tied down. Looking after someone else’s dog is like being a grandparent – at the end of the visit the responsibility can be handed back. 

Dogs in a parade I watched today in Ieper, Belgium.

Relaxing in the museum courtyard

Courtyard at Rijksmuseum Enschede, The Netherlands

I've discovered I love sitting in the courtyard of a museum or art gallery with a cold drink or a light lunch. It provides a rest, both from walking and from intense scrutiny of the treasures.

Lunch at Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane

Sometimes the courtyard has a garden, a water feature or sculptures.

Queensland Art Gallery Courtyard, Brisbane, Australia

At the Queensland Art Gallery you can lunch with lizards and ibises.

 Ibis and lizard at Queensland Art Gallery

If the weather doesn't favour sitting outside, the museum cafe is usually pleasant enough. At the Maritime Museum in Reykjavik, Iceland in May we opted to enjoy the fish chowder indoors.

Fish chowder at the Maritime Museum in Reykjavik.

Doing the laundry

One of Ásmundur Sveinsson’s sculptures in the garden at Ásmundursafn – The Ásmundur Sveinsson Sculpture Museum in Reykjavik.

This statue in Reykjavik, by Icelandic sculptor Ásmundur Sveinsson, immediately spoke to me of the traveller’s ongoing challenge to maintain a supply of clean clothing.

More than two months into a European trip I have seen very few laundromats. One I stumbled upon was no help as my dirty clothes were some distance away, back where I was staying. Once, with a bag of dirty laundry in hand, I was directed to a laundromat and fairly quickly emerged with a stack of clean clothing. The service was rather pricey though.

Laundromat in Orleans, France.

A benefit of staying in other people’s homes, as I have been doing most of this trip through airbnb bookings www.airbnb.com/‎ and a house sitting engagement, is that there is often the opportunity to do laundry.

Electric clothes dryers being relatively rare outside North America this does mean hoping the clothes dry before it is time to move on. I was intrigued by this solution I spotted in Spain for keeping the rain off laundry put outdoors to dry.

Drying clothes in Madrid.

Cycling in the Netherlands

Cyclist on a bike path.

No, not me. My Dutch friends did find a bicycle for me. It was too big though for my short legs and I decided not to risk it. It has been several decades since I did cycle touring in Tasmania and New Zealand and rode a bike to work in Queensland. Since then I have seldom been on one.

Bike riders are all ages.

Nearly everyone cycles here, as you may know. People of all ages, often with their shopping. People going to work. Parents with children for and aft in all sorts of carriers. Women in dresses and even high heels. Family groups, one that appeared to be parents, children and grandparents.

Clear markings on bike lanes.

With a strict “yield to the right” rule, cyclists turn onto main roads immediately in front of cars and even big trucks. The ultimate traffic rule here is “cyclists rule”. Pedestrians get some respect – from motorists.

Motorists turning right are warned to watch for cyclists in the bike lane.

In a month in the city of Enschede I have seen only three riders with helmets. Two were racers in spandex and the other, a little girl learning to ride her two wheeler. I have observed several young people texting while biking. For discussion on bicycle safety in the Netherlands see these blogs.

http://www.tobysterling.net/2008/04/bike-injuries-and-deaths-in-netherlands.html

http://www.bakfiets-en-meer.nl/2008/10/16/bicycle-death-statistics-in-amsterdam-and-the-netherlands/

Child carrier and bike in bicycle shop window.