Melbourne City Tour: First Stop - St. Patrick's Cathedral

We braved the cold morning, walked the streets of Melbourne coz of an early pick-up time of 7:00am. Winter can really dampen one's spirits with all the cold, dreary atmosphere, and gloomy skies. You really have to shake yourself up just to get alive and interactive. 

One thing I hate about city tours is that you have to sit in the bus for a long time (especially if you are the first pick-up) while the driver stop in at least a dozen other places to pick up the other day-trippers  booked for that tour. We finally arrived at the Grayline office near Flinders Street at around 7:50am, we still have another 30 minutes to wait before its our turn to go.

I loved our tour guide, full of local lore and a fount of information about local history and culture. She made all the places we passed by sort of come to life with her anecdotes about the history of the place or the famous people associated with it.

The sun started to come out a bit late in the day, winter can really be depressing with all the lifeless trees without leaves and grey skies as if perennially threatening to dump heavy rain all over you. 

It was already closer to 9:00am when we cruised towards our first stop, the St. Patrick's Cathedral. The cathedral is a picturesque Gothic style Catholic church built in 1858 and is currently the seat of the Archbishop of Melbourne. It was very unfortunate that there was an ongoing mass and it is not allowed for outsiders to go in while the mass is on (its nice to know that they are very respectful and will not allow admittance, in the Philippines even while the mass is on, the church doors will remain open to visitors). 

Although a bit small for a cathedral, its surroundings and architecture more than made up for the lack of size. From the obelisk - river flow, to the old garbled trees surrounding the church, to the pointed spires that somehow conveys a very romantic, medieval picture reminiscent of 19th century Europe.

My niece, Eiesha, throwing a coin (for luck, accdg to her)