Bike Ride in the City

After our long (for us anyway!) bike ride last week, I struggled to get the boys off the couch and enjoy the outside again, especially since it's been so hot. But today was some light relief from the heat with the wind keeping the temperatures down. I convinced the boys to go on a 15 minute ride, just to get the bikes out, but also mentioned that we might catch a train to make the journey easier.

So after all the whining, we trekked off on our bikes to the train station to catch a train to the city. As you can see.... they knew it wasn't possible to be a 15 minute ride if we were to catch a train. Evidence No 1: Let's show mum we are already bored and pretend to sleep on the train!

We got to the city and it was alive with the bustle of people. We decided to ride along the Yarra River enjoying the greenery of the banks and the calmness of the water. Many families, lovers and bike riders were out doing the same thing... enjoying our beautiful city on a lovely summer's day. We rode from Flinders Street station to Morrell Bridge in South Yarra, crossed the Yarra and returned back via Southbank Promenade to the station (shhh... don't tell the boys we could have gone via the bridge to South Yarra station to make the trip quicker!) 

Views from Morrell Bridge

We stopped on Southbank Promenade for a small snack, admiring the sculptures, the street performers and the tourists. There was an aboriginal man playing the didgeridoo, in all his tribal paints, and about 50 metres up from him, was a little boy who looked like he was about 4 years old and had just purchased a didgeridoo from a souvenir shop. He decided to play his didgeridoo, put his hat out for some money and see what would happen. There wasn't a crowd around him as such, but people were quietly looking from a distance at the distinct difference in buskers (I'm sure the little boy didn't have a busking permit) and seeing how the little boy's takings were affecting the authentic aboriginal busker. Quite amusing! (sorry there are no pics of the buskers!)

Southbank Promenade outside Freshwater Place

After all the initial whinging that we were longer than '15 minutes,' somehow I had smiles on their faces at Flinders Street station on the way home. AND, I even had the comment from the 9 year old, that he's getting used to riding his bike now. Hmmm... where could we go next? Maybe up into Belgrave to chase Puffing Billy, the steam train? Who knows...