Perth

We dropped the caravan off at a park Lidia found, then headed into Perth city. This is the first time we have been there, and it is a strange town.  Doesn't feel large or busy like a capital city should.

We headed straight for Kings Park and spent a few hours just looking around.  They claim the best views of Perth city, and have some well narated native forrests and boardwalks.

 

 

 

 

We went to see the bell tower, where they allow tourists to ring the bell ever 15 minutes on Sundays.  The price to go up was steeper than the stairs, so we admired it from the ground.
 

 

After then, we took a walk through the CBD.  A couple of things worth mentioning were a kids water playground,  the London Court shopping walkway and very clean streets.  There were only a handful of restaurants and coffee shops, and had no real atmosphere. Really quite disappointing.

One thing they have are some fantastic cycling facilities, walking tracks and parks right in the city.  There is one that Lidia and I took, that takes you along the river and makes a big loop (probably 8-10kms).  Very scenic, but a touch long for our lazy legs, so we walked half and caught the $1.90 ferry back.

The next day (today), we drove to Freemantle.  First think we found was that they have free parking, a touch outside the centre, but have a free bus service to bring you back in.  This place seems to have all of the atmosphere that should have been in Perth.

Anyway, first on the cards was the Little Creatures Brewery, which is my 3rd favorite at the moment, so I was happy that we stumbled on it.  We had lunch at the brewery (which was overpriced and crap), but, they made up for it with the beers.  The Pale Ale is still my favorite, but it tastes much better from the tap than the bottle.

 

We did a brewery tour, which was free and excellent, and finished with a tasting session.  They only gave away half mouthfulls, which was disappointing, but I cant complain any more that cause it was free.

One thing I found interesting was that they serve their beer directly from their main storage tanks, and dont keg it. For bottling and kegging, it is loaded into road tankers, and taken elsewere. Would be nice to hyjack one of those :)

 

  Also, had a photo wall we made use of.

 

Took a walk down the main dining street just to soak up some more good atmosthere, and stopped at another brewery - The Mad Monk.  These guys had a 8 glass tasting pallet, of good sizes. The beers were all good, but a stand out one was the "Ranch" which had the most awsome smoky flavor rounded out with maltiness and mild hop taste.  This will need some investigating when I get home.