Miss Fisher Mystery Walking Tour

Monday was a lazy day for me, I walked to lunch and took a few shots of houses on the walk back to Bre's.  I'm a little sheepish about admitting I ate lunch at the same place we had dinner the night before.  Bre berated me a little about having veggie burgers two meals in a row but the veggie burger was amazing.  I think the pickles were the thing that made it extra special.  I would compare them to bread and butter pickles but I'm not really sure I just know the burger was so good.  Oh I should probably mention the name of the place, Huxtaburger.  

My mom requested that I take more pictures of the houses around Melbourne so she could get a feel of the area.  I'm happy to take pictures for her. 

I have found it very interesting that every house I've seen, and I mean EVERY one, has a fence in the front yard.  I'm a girl from the Midwest and when I grew up most of the neighborhoods didn't have fences in the back yard (unless they had a dog) let alone the front yard.  I guess they like their privacy here.


Also of note is there are amazing older homes here with all kinds of ironwork on them right next door to a modern cube type home.  I love modern homes all sleek and concrete but I will admit they aren't nearly as charming as the older homes in this town. 

Bre picked me up after work and we went for dumplings for dinner.  Yum.  I thought I'd never had dumplings before but I was wrong.  I've gotten fried dumplings at the Asian market in Springfield.  They aren't nearly as good as what we ate last night.

Today I was so excited because I went to the CBD to take the Miss Fisher Mysteries walking tour offered by Meltours.  Doing a happy dance!!!!!!  On the tram ride to the CBD, I saw these kids having fun playing with these LARGE balls that they get inside of.  I think that would be a blast to try. 

I got to the downtown area with plenty of time to spare because I didn't want to miss the tour so I had time to get a quick lunch at a Japanese place and then go to a Diaso, the Japanese dollar store, to pick up a few things for Bre. 

 As I was waiting for the tour to begin on a bench near our meeting spot, another tour participant approached me.  I had my camera around my neck which might has well have been screaming "I'm a tourist".  She was a milliner from Canada who was a big Phryne fan and this lucky woman has a meeting with the costume designer, Marion Boyce, the next day.  How cool is that!!!!!  

Our tour guide, Kathy, was right on time and I knew I was going to like her when I saw her shoes.

Two other women from the Melbourne area joined the tour so the five of us headed into Self Preservation for afternoon tea.   I had no idea afternoon tea was a full blown lunch.   Since I'd already eaten lunch I only tasted the salad and the sandwich.  I regretted having eaten earlier since this was way better than the Japanese lunch.  In fact the bread in the sandwich was some of the best I'd ever eaten.  They also served scones with clotted cream and jam.  MMMMMMM.

Once tea was concluded we headed out for out tour.  Kathy was a plethora of information about Melbourne history and Miss Fisher Mysteries.  Did you know that Essie Davis bobbed her hair and colored it brown for the show.  I had no clue.  I thought it was a really good wig.  Apparently a wig would have been way easier since she had to get her bangs (aka fringe) cut three times a week and her hair cut about one a week.  One of the really fun features of the tour was every time we'd go to a spot where they filmed, Kathy would show us the scene on her Ipad.  Apparently last year when Melbourne had a city wide festival of Miss Fisher Mysteries, the production company asked Meltours to put together a walking tour to visit spots where the show filmed.  To make the tour better the film editor put together clips of the show featuring those locations. 

This is the Hotel Windsor where Phryne stays when she first gets to Melbourne.

Then we saw the home of a famous builder which is now the offices of the National Preservation Society and where scenes were filmed.  We went inside the Old Treasury Building where they filmed scenes from the last episode of the first season.  

We also got to go inside the building where they filmed a bank robbery scene in the first season and a theater scene in the third season.  In all, we saw 7 or 8 places they filmed but along the way we were regaled with a colorful history of the Melbourne CBD. 

At the end of the tour we stopped at a lovely bar decorated in the period style where we had a cocktail and chatted about the tour.  I had a great time, so worth the price of admission.

Super Saturday in Melbourne

Aren't Saturday's the best?   They are even better when you get to spend the day with your daughter!!!!!!  We had a couple of things planned that would take us through the CBD (central business district) which I didn't feel like driving through.

Bre was up for the challenge and we were off after a relaxing morning.

First stop was Tranquility Crafts in the Moonee Ponds area of Melbourne.  This place has a little bit of everything, counted cross stitch, embroidery, quilting.  It was jam packed so much so that if someone else was in the aisle you had to back up to a intersecting aisle to make way.  My kind of shop!!!!!  The best part for me was they had about a million patterns and I only slightly exaggerate.  With some help from the owner, I found the Red Brolly section and felt like I'd died and gone to heaven.  I think they had every pattern that Red Brolly had ever put out.  I bought all these plus a cute surf themed quilt pattern.  I am going to be so busy when I get home sewing my little fingers to the bone.

I had a nice chat with a couple of ladies who were Missouri Star Quilt fans.  Gotta love the internet.  I live in Missouri and am lusting after Australian patterns and these women live in Australia and are lusting after Missouri patterns.  I love that our world has gotten a bit smaller with the internet.  Bre, being the gregarious person that she is, had a nice chat with several women who were busy in the classroom.  I highly recommend the shop.

Next up we headed over to the house they used in the Miss Fisher Mysteries tv series.  I was surprised at how excited I was.  I had a touch of butterflies as we neared the place.  So silly.  I took a bunch of pictures and Bre took some of me in front of the house.

It was lovely.  I tried to picture in my head a few of the scenes from the show.  I think they might have trimmed the hedge back but not sure.  A few people were walking down the street giving us very strange looks.  I'm strange, I admit it proudly.

Next up we went for lunch at Smith and Daughters which is this vegan restaurant in Brunswick Street area we had visited last Sunday. We saw this sweet man with his little girl as we walked in. 

Bre and I ordered three things off the menu and shared them.  We had corn fritters (Bre's favorite),  Jalapeno Mac and Cheese, and a Mexican Hash (my favorite).  Oh and we had some homemade donuts for dessert.  Everything was excellent and the place was very quaint with exposed brick walls and industrial decorations.  Four stars.

After lunch we headed over to Sun Bookshop over in Yarraville.  I wanted to go there because they had the Miss Fisher Mysteries Coloring book.  I had to have one and a bookmark with Phryne and one with Jack.  No trip to Melbourne would have been complete with out some Phryne souvenirs!!!!!   I LOVE THAT SHOW!!!!!!

We checked out other shops in the little shopping area and the outdoor space as well.  These folks were out and playing and eating outside even though it is winter here.  They definitely love the outdoors.  There are tons of these little shopping areas around town.  Not strip malls, but little shops on local streets.  They really are lovely.

We headed home after that adventure and later on walked to the local Indian place and ordered take away.  Delicious of course.  Bre is such an adventurous eater now (unlike when she was living at home).  She has introduced me to some awesome foods here.