Road Trip 4: architecture

One of the pleasures of travel is seeing the architecture of Away.

Sometimes it's just the angles of a modest nineteenth century cottage, like this one in Violet Town.

Or the pleasure of seeing a classic corrugated roof weatherboard cottage with wire fence and a tumble of pink roses - this one also in Violet Town.

Or else something grander, like the Art Gallery in Bendigo, Victorian sandstone and the clear influence of nineteenth century gold rush money.

We parked next to the Art Gallery, in a car park overlooking the oval and this graceful grandstand - iron lace done well, as historically it was (and in modern terms, usually isn't).

In the city centre, there were lots more buildings to admire - influences from English architecture, other tall thin buildings with mansard roofs that looked like they might be found in Paris, and a whopper of a cathedral (which I didn't photograph).  Rosalind Park has this Soldiers' Museum, with Queen Victoria keeping an eye on things:

For me, it's sometimes the smaller details that are most engaging.  Here's the ex-fire station, next to the Gallery - a wonderfully grand side door:

And (from memory on the same street, View St), this relic of past activity:

In Castlemaine, the visitors' centre is in what we guessed was once a wool store, with wonderful green paintwork.

Lots to see, and much more than I could photograph on one short visit.  Castlemaine (that's cassulmaine, not carslemaine, one learns - rhymes with hassle rather than parcel) and Maldon (wonderful main street!) too are rich in beautiful buildings, large and small.