Fremantle and Perth

The port and city of Fremantle is our gateway to the 4th largest city in Australia, Perth. Fremantle is a cute little town sitting at the mouth of the Swan River, whose terminus is at Perth. 

There's two fun ways to get to Perth from Fremantle - train (30 minutes) and riverboat ( 1 hour 15 minutes). 

We arrived yesterday at 4:00 PM and leave tonight at 5 PM. After dinner last night Carol, Vinny and I went out and did an evening walk about town. We walked along the waterfront towards the train station and then on down to the esplanade along the beach. We stopped at a cafe and bar and had a beer, resting our feet. 

Then we went on and headed into the downtown area where the nightlife was hopping a bit more. We stopped at yet another bar called Meatballs and Cocktails and had another beer. But they had last call at 9:30!!!! Turns out the town pretty much shuts down by 11:00 PM. Maybe it's a bit more lively on the weekends. Either that or the townspeople turn into mice and pumpkins at midnight. 

Today, after breakfast we took the train into Perth. Once in town we made our way a few blocks down to the waterfront where the Swan Bell Tower is. It's a famous bell tower that holds 18 bells from St. Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square in London. These bells have been in existence since the 17th century. In the early 1980's the church bells were in poor condition and causing structural damage to the church. They were scheduled to be melted down and re-cast. But, the Swan Bells Foundation got wind of this and ended up negotiating with England to have the bells gifted to Australia as a bicentennial gift from the Queen, in exchange for a large donation by Australia of tin and copper, which went to the repair and restoration of the St. Martin church!!  Best deal ever, as far as Perth was concerned. 

The tower was built and the bells installed and it opened to the public in 2000. 

We were able to visit the tower and also got the chance to ring the bells which was great fun. It was also very difficult to pull these ropes to get the bells to ring! I have a new found respect for these very experienced and highly trained bell ringers. 

We found the ticket office for the Swan River riverboat and bought tickets for the afternoon trip back to Fremantle. Then we went off and had a nice lunch. Afterwards I went off souvenir shopping before the boat left. 

It has been a great day!  

Now we have three sea days until we arrive in Bali, our next port. 

Perth

Fremantle

Albany Australia

Early this morning we arrived in our next to last port in Australia- Albany. It's a small little city along Western Australia's Rainbow Coast and, up until 1978, it's main activity was that of a whaling center. Whaling ships went out into the waters off the coast and hunted sperm whales and brought them back to the docks at Albany where the whales were processed for their oil, teeth and meat. In 1978 this whaling station closed its doors. It was the last one in the Southern Hemisphere to do so, as whaling had been outlawed by Australia. 

It took over ten years for the economy in the city to recover.  Albany is also famous for being the departure point for the ANZAC soldiers of WW1 being shipped out to Gallipoli and further. There is a wonderful ANZAC memorial center that's just been opened for a couple of years. For thousands of these soldiers it was their last look at their homeland before they were killed in battle overseas. 

Albany is also well known for its coastal beauty, especially in Torndirrup National Park where there are great rock formations and a natural rock bridge. 

I prearranged a private tour for 7 of us and today we visited all of these places I've mentioned here. We also enjoyed a yummy lunch of fish and chips (the waitress told us the fish we ate today was a type of shark) and salad, at pretty Middleton Beach. I also tried the local beer - Wilson pale ale. It, too, was yummy. It's funny, at home I rarely drink beer. I'm a wine girl. But traveling must bring out the "hey let's have a beer" in me!

Tomorrow will be our last Australian port - Fremantle/Perth. I'm looking forward to it because it is also another new city for me. 

One note about my pictures - the little toddler girl ringing the dinner bell xylophone is the dad three of the ship's second in command officer. She's a real delight to observe! Her name is Lily. 

 

Albany Australia