Perth, Australia: Day 66

Awake early to take the train into Perth, capital city of the huge state of WA (Western Australia) not
really knowing the train schedule. Looking lost as we arrived at the station a worker came out of the
booth to help us with tickets. There is a big advantage to traveling in English speaking countries. Round
trip tickets into Perth were $3 apiece. The train line is a dedicated line with Freemantle at one end and
Perth central station at the other end. It is about a 30- minute ride. They cancelled the line for five
years in the late 70’s and early 80’s. It was fought and even became a political hot potato and was
reinstated after the five-year absence. It was comfortable, not crowded, and got us to the center of
Perth with ease. We decided on the hop-on-hop-off bus and found its first pick-up spot fairly close to
the station. We walked to the spot and caught the first stop of the day.

Look at the bar above the driver's head, this shows the number of languages for choice on listening devices on the hop-on-ho-off bus. 

Of note - the second one is the kids channel

The entire route takes about 2 hours and they give you ear phones to plug in to hear the spiel. The best
line on the tour was one about Perth having the climate that California thinks it has. There were some
modern buildings, some facades that are older in style hooked to modern buildings and a few buildings
that were older style. One of the most interesting constructions was Matagarup Bridge which looked
like a modern day roller coaster. We only saw it from a distance so could not get a picture, but if you
want to see a crazy bridge we recommend you look it up for yourself.

Kangaroo Seal

Jerry is contemplating his own cartwheel....

Our map told us where to meet the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus where we climbed to the open top level to

view the city in a two-hour tour. We were advised to stay seated unless we wanted to become like
other tourists seen dangling from the tall treetops. Heh. We enjoyed the Christmas lights from the top
level and the various must-sees such as Kings Park, 400 hectares (almost 1000 acres) overlooking the
city with lovely gardens and greenspace.

Architecture from the 1800s has been preserved in this very modern city, sometimes only with the
façade remaining. A spindle-like bell tower is near the Black Swan River and noisily plays for donations.

A remaining facade

Bell tower

Note the black swans along the bridge. No swans remain but were there when the first explorers came

in from the ocean. We didn’t go into the only mint in Australia cuz we weren’t keen on learning our
weight in gold…