Perth, the surprise

After "bitching" a bit about Sydney, nothing but good can be said about Perth, the capital of Western Australia. Somewhere during colonial times, someone in power took a ruler and a pencil and drew a line north south on the continental map and created Western Australia, just west of Darwin to avoid the "who is the capital" discussion. Well this state now covers one third of the country, making it the largest state anywhere in the world, (that means 5 times the size of Texas or for Europeans among you, 10 times Italy), housing 2 million people or almost 10% of the Australian population.

(Park right below our hotel window)

(Cricket stadium with Friday evening practice game)

Maybe, because we are "small town" people ourselves (the city plus suburbs counts a population of 1.9 million, but the city itself maybe a few hundred thousand), maybe, it was the cab driver from dutch origin (Bram got here at age 7) in the early sixties, maybe, it was the blue sky (Perth is the sunniest city in Australia, maybe even the world, with more than 300 sun days a year), maybe, it was the view from our 15th floor balcony, but this town had something that appealed.

(Perth mall street art)

(Mall statue)

(St Mary's right down town survived a few earth quakes)

In the days that followed, that feeling was confirmed by interesting factoids and the people we met.

(Kids loved the water fountains spouting at different intervals with a "colonial clown" entertaining them)

(Christmas with religious elements on the mall - haven't seen that in the US for years)

As we arrived in the morning hours, we had to leave our luggage at the hotel and were kindly booted out till our room would be ready. We were told that inner city public transportation, meaning buses, were free. We thus rode all four colors of CAT buses (City Area Transportation), the red and yellow lines went east west, the blue and green lines north south) from beginning to end to get a feel of down town. We walked the city mall, no cars allowed, and found the iPerth tourist info booth, where we were told that at 11 am the next day a walking tour was advised.

(Fremantle downtown pub with a profound statement below)

(Rosemary our guide entertaining us)

(Perth Supreme Court)

(I saw 2 live Roo's in Australia from a distance, so this is the best I can do for you)

(Rosemary insisted on this picture)

(We loved the diverse range of trees in Australia)

Rosemary turned out to be a very sprite well informed Brit (she stated she wasn't Aussie, because she came as a "ten pounder" to town). In those days the Australian government recruited immigrants to come, asking for 10 pounds for the documentation and the trip cost to Australia. The only consequence was that the government decided where you would reside in your new country. And in Rosemary's case that was Western Australia, or in those days Perth, a small backwater town on the lazy Swan river. Now it is the fastest growing town in Australia growing 1,000 citizens a week. And it shows, as all around town construction cranes indicate, that new buildings and or city complexes arise.

(Downtown Perth growing 1000 people a week, thus construction cranes all around)

Rosemary pointed out several landmarks as seen in the pictures, and stopped at the senior center, where she read us today's $10 menu. She lives 40 plus kilometers out of town but can ride for free to downtown for her lunch or dinner.

(This store has dried foods in bins and very much in demand since 1929, one of the three owners just died recently at age 93 after showing for work daily)

(This English court was built before WW1 for 45000 pounds by a prospector gone rich; upper offices with old signage reinforces the feel of this center. Picture below is long shot along the court yard)

We took the next day an all day ticket for less than $12 each to ride that far out of town to Mandurah a beach town, which we left asap as it was infested with pesky little biting flies, which made me feel like a horse or a cow swatting those pests off my face all the time, shaking my head. When asking locals, they told us, that those pests would be there all summer and that they were early this season, but that one gets used to it. We decided not to have lunch there. The flies followed us in the bus, an untold number of them riding my back.

(We had lunch right beside the senior luncheon affair with fifties and sixties music under colorful tents)

(Riverside Bell tower downtown recently built for bells given by an English town whose name I forgot)

(River trip brought us alongside this neighborhood, see above and below)

We also "alighted" (that is what Aussies say when they leave a train or bus) in the port city of Fremantle, where the Swan river flows into the Indian Ocean. We regretted not having more time to explore this wonderful old port, so a ride on the local CAT bus had to do.

(Some people have large homes built to spec with less imaginative neighbors)

An evening cricket game from our balcony told me that I do not understand the game, but the crowd roared at various times, thus I take it the home team was winning.

(Aboriginal paintings in a new neighborhood)

On our last full day in Perth we took a cruise for several hours upriver on the Swan. The first announcement was, that in case the ship would sink we would be directed to climb on the roof where we would be dry, as the river wasn't deep enough to worry about evacuation procedures nor the need for vests to be distributed.

(Above and below Swan river pictures during river cruise)

(Below our "funny" captain, who after awhile started to annoy us)

The captain turned out to be a jolly, congenial bullshitter with irrelevant rants at the federal government in his commentaries during this trip, highlighting the fact there was not much to tell about this lazy winding river with apartment complexes and homes facing the water.

(Pictures taken during our train trip to pesky biting fly townships)

(Aussie bird have not seen before and below the "old" station in Mandurah)

(Riverview of Perth)

The skyline of Perth from the water looked a bit like any mid sized modern city, with here and there construction cranes indicating "progress".

(Regional train and the universal Australian sign for bike storage place near stations)

(Self explanatory above in train below)

According to Rosemary a waterfront area near the ferries downtown would become a bit like Dubai, with futuristic skyscrapers and all.

(Above wall art in downtown Perth results in below picture of Marilyn)

Wifi was a problem again. We went to the library to find free wifi and check our emails, only to learn we needed 5G to access their system.

(The most expensive art object symbolizing Perth's isolated location, loved and hated. In my opinion the pigeon poop improves this plastic statue)

(Above colonial government offices with below national code of arms, with a deviation the kangaroo is looking backwards toward the treasury building for more money)

(Below code of arms indicate that the kangaroo and the emu stare at each other without blinking, thus forward only - no retreat)

Public places almost never had wifi access. Aussies have their smartphones and phone booths, so who cares about the few foreigners anxiously trying to find internet connections.

(A frontal shot of the government offices - one of few old buildings left; many facades we saw were just that facades, with new buildings behind it)

We tried to have lunch at a 35 story high revolving restaurant, but were denied again, because I was wearing dress (I stress "dress") shorts, as shorts are shorts and that is that.

(An "arty" shot of the downtown plaza)

Did we tell you why we flew from Sydney to Perth of all places? Well because we are taking the train back to Sydney to see the outback in all its glory on a 3 night trip spanning the whole continent.

But about that in the next blog

 

 

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