Perth
Having been to and reported on Perth in my posting of seven years ago (geez, time flies), I’ll limit my comments to a few highlights of this visit. We spent four nights in the Quay Perth hotel, in a room with a great view of the river and, while quite comfortable, oddly minimalist in its in-room amenities. For instance, there are no towel bars in the bathroom and only one peg (near the shower). We draped our wet towels over the bathtub.
While, for our stay, our view was great, the foundation of a building between the hotel and the riverfront is being prepared. I wonder how the hotel will fare when that new construction destroys the view.
For our first full day, we did a lot of wandering, visiting the original court house, now a museum, and exploring St. George’s Anglican cathedral. We returned to the cathedral later to listen to a concert.
The day after our return from Rottnest we toured the Bell Tower. As the elevator was out during our originally scheduled tour, we changed to a later one that included being on the level where the huge ANZAC bell played at noon. The bell was cast and installed in 2018 to commemorate the sacrifices and war dead of the Australia New Zealand Army Corps, which lost so many men during the Gallipoli campaign of WW I.
As part of the tour, we got to ring several of the famous Swan Bells, twelve of which are bells first cast in the 14th century and originally mounted in the belfry of St Martin in the Field in London.
For having toured while the ANZAC bell was pealing, we were given medallions. We then went to the Perth Mint (which we had visited in 2018), where the medallions were engraved with our names, gratis. To get there and back while avoiding the arriving rain, we jumped on buses in both directions, without a clue as to what we were doing. (Within a limited area of downtown, bus rides are free, at least that is what we understood. Everyone before us mounting the bus “clocked” in, which made us nervous.) We just guessed where to get off. Sometimes you just have to be lucky.
That evening, the rain abated and we were able to walk the twenty minutes to an excellent restaurant, a recommendation of the McKennas, who patronized the place the night before. The ceviche was particularly good. In fact, all the restaurants we have been to in Perth have been excellent.
It’s Saturday as I write this and it’s steadily raining, our first adverse weather of the whole trip. We’re stuck in the hotel lobby for four and a half hours, waiting for our transport to the rail station. We tried taking a walk during a pause in the rain, but we had to scramble back to the hotel when the rain returned. I suppose we could have hired an uber to visit one more attraction but we’ve gotten lazy.
The rain is expected to be significant and lasting, a weather event called “training,” with a relentless series of showers. Oh, get us to the train.