Castlemaine, Maurocco (or is it Maurocco, Castlemaine)
Several years ago we discovered The Midland Hotel in Castlemaine, a hotel built in the Victorian era and updated to the Art Deco style in the 1930s and which takes up what feels like a whole block right outside the train station. It's an excellent place.
(It doesn't really take up a whole block.)
Guests can use the rather grand lounge which is a real treat. It's almost a cube with a clerestory roof and, among many framed pictures on the wall, a portrait of the owner (one of the owners?), Mauro, reading a newspaper with the headline 'Fracas at the Midland Hotel.' There is also the Maurocco Bar for those desiring a skillfully-mixed cocktail. All it really needs is a grand piano complete with an ivory tickler.
Given the lounge, we decided to make this trip a writing retreat given my recent dip into creative writing and Adrian likewise with his head in the words. That aspect of things went very well.
(The first reason for the weekend away was to see Tropical Fuck Storm play, which I will get to in my next post.)
Castlemaine is good fun. It's small and sleepy, but things are happening here and there. We saw someone giving a talk in a laundromat and we gave some change to a busker who let us take one piece from his special rock collection.
It's also a good place for secondhand books (as are many of the towns in the region). I picked up a book of photos of the marine life in Port Phillip Bay, such as the giant spider crabs that gather in their thousands on the full moon in late Autumn or early Winter to moult. Terrifying shit. I love it.
There's a good vintage market, one of those places with lots of stalls and a single cashier, and for the second time there I picked up a book of knitting patterns. On our last visit the market coughed up a copy of The KLF's The White Room on CD, lucky us.
We watched Carlton beat the Eagles in the AFLW final on TV at The Bridge Hotel, another lovely place that seems to have quite a few good gigs on.
Castlemaine always provides lots of good reasons to return. Must do this more often!
