Today we woke to beautiful blue skies, disproving our rapidly developing theory that every day in Melbourne is wet and grey! So Steve dusted off his shorts and we packed our buckets and spades and headed for the seaside. Actually we went to St Kilda and Rickett's Point which are both on Port Philip bay!
St Kilda is a lively place with a very attractive pier and boardwalk and a beautiful sandy beach with distant views of the skyscrapers in Melbourne's CBD. At last Jane saw the skateboarders and in-line skaters she had expected from day one in Melbourne! We walked up the pier and had a drink in the handily placed pretty café at the end. A few years ago a fire on the pier burnt down the Victorian café but fortunately the original plans were found and it has been rebuilt exactly the same.
Rickett's Point on the other hand is much quieter with a marine conservation area. Both of our friends, Rod and Suzie were brought up close to these areas of Melbourne. Suzie in nearby Brighton and she didn't believe her Dad when he told her that Brighton in England had a stony beach. Rod used to like going to Rickett's Point as a child to visit relatives. So this is an area that has played an important part in both their lives. We went to the Rickett's Point Tea House for lunch, an old haunt of Rod and Suzie's, and then went for a lovely walk along the beach and Rod took lots of pelican photos while Steve took photos of Rod taking pictures of.......!
Rickett's Point is particularly picturesque with shallow waters and rock pools and is well known for being an artistic centre much favoured by the famous Victorian Heidelberg school of painters who used to camp there and paint in the impressionist style.
It's our last day in Melbourne and although there's much more we haven't seen and done, we feel very fortunate to have had a “well rounded” week with a little bit of everything from city sights, culture, wildlife, good food and wine but most of all good friends and family!
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