Bend it like Bendigo
Comments(6) Long weekend for the Queen’s birthday – just missed out on birthday honours so decided to go to Bendigo for the day instead. A very historical place, centre of the old goldfields area, but doesn’t do much for itself by being very cold. With the old, grey buildings frowning down at me and very few people silly enough to be wandering around like us, I was wondering if it was such a great idea.
However things picked up after visiting the information centre and filling the stomach with a nice warm cup of tea and a Thai-style pumpkin soup. We had decided to go on a walking tour of the city centre which turned out to be fun even though we had to keep moving to stay warm.
We first had a look at some Chinese monuments, an ornate gateway and bridge near the Golden Dragon museum. Bendigo has a strong link with China as a lot of people from China settled there during the gold rush in the 1800s.
We did a quick walk around an old wooden church and then meandered up past the now-defunct Bendigo gaol which incidentally is sandwiched between the primary and secondary school and flanked by the bowling club (which was buzzing today incidentally). Hmmmm…
Took a left turn past one of the oldest buildings in Bendigo, the old Police Barracks which is a lovely sandstone building then through Rosalind Park up Camp Hill to a metal tower which we climbed to get a good view of the city.
By then we needed a coffee for warmth so we stopped at the art gallery down the hill. We decided to also have something else to eat – needed the energy, you know – I had scones with cream and jam and Andrew had a slice of orange cake. There was a lovely water feature outside the cafe – classical statues stood behind the glass beside it, creating wonderful reflections in the water.
Our final stop was a nearby hill where there were about four different churches – it was obviously ‘the’ place to get down and spiritual. Most impressive was the Catholic cathedral – it is huge with marble floors inside and spires, stained glass windows, gargoyles and wooden carvings of angels on the ceiling. It’s hard to imagine how they could ever fill it even in its hey day.
Unfortunately now the long weekend is almost over. It’s always the way. We’re going to make it last a bit longer though by watching the Australia v Japan World Cup match tonight and going to bed a little later than usual on a school night.
Off to the soccer eh? I’ve just put it on but probably won’t watch it all.
Bendigo sounded to be so interesting but NOT the cold….reminds me of NZ where it’s snowing today. Janis will be in Syd this w/end for her business ie selling phone packages to family and friends.
Pity these long w/ends go so quickly for those who have to go to work.
Love your comment about the Catholic church. Where did they ever get all thsoe parishioners from eh?
Do you like soccer? I have been doing my level best to avoid the World Cup like the plague. If Sean is watching it I make him turn the sound down as I can’t stand those blower things the crowd inanely puff into all match long!!! Hope you enjoyed it even if I don’t!
As for cold – I was complaining the other day because it got down to 8 overnight. Our house has wooden floorbaords so it’s like a wind tunnel.
Well you know my relationship with sport is seriously dysfunctional but I watched my first soccer game the other week when Australia played Greece and thought it was OK.
Last night I decided I should watch Australia play in the world cup as it is such a big thing. Anyway by half time, Andrew had to virtually chain me to the sofa to stop me going to bed. I was groaning and even went and had a lie down at half time.
The game was just about over and Andrew having probably given up on me, suggested I go to bed but there was no way I was going then after making it that far. Lucky I didn’t because it was in that next 10 minutes that Australia scored the 3 goals. I would have been so annoyed if I’d missed that. It ended up being really exciting in the end and I did get a little bit into it.
Saying that I don’t think I will be watching the Brazil game at 2am next week!
I saw on the news how the electricity went out in Auckland again and affected lots of people in NZ. Oops!
As for the catholic church, it was almost as big as a football field in there. Heavens!
Hehehe, have been trying to get Ruth to at least watch a little bit of the World Cup – not every game, but the big ones
It has kind of been working. I don’t usually get Ruth to watch any sport really, but the World Cup is only once every four years so a couple of games isn’t going to kill 
Haven’t been chaining Ruth to the chair (not THAT kinky) 
It is the 2nd big outage in Auckland in the last few years. One of the guys from work in my team (we telecommute) is an Aucklander and he was struggling on Monday (no public holiday so he was at work).
Bendigo is a surprisingly wealthy city and therefore most of the buildings there are magnificent. Was the wealthiest city in the world at one stage during the mid to late 1800′s in the gold rush era…
I must have been the only one to miss the news about the big snow in NZ. My friend told me about the electricity being down with the heavy snow falls. Reminds me of my childhood and teaching days in West Otago where we got snowed in every year and the little school was closed for a couple of days. It was quite fun in a way knowing we couldn’t go anywhere!! I think you can just about relate to that in Melb with your freezing temps. Have just put on the heater at 10.47pm for a short while.
Poor you having to suffer in front of that TV! Sometimes I think TV is the pits….I still haven’t seen the winning goals by Oz! Can’t wait for Wimbledon though (hee!! hee!!)
I’m actually glad Andrew encouraged me to watch the game as it was quite exciting in the end. TV can be mindless at times but there are some good current affairs shows on. I handed in my final essay today for the semester and turned the TV on just now after getting home from our final class which seemed like such a treat but then couldn’t find anything I wanted to watch! Always the way!!