Saturday - February 19, 2005

Australia: Freemantle & Perth

Shortly after we left New York, we received the bad news that we would not be making our scheduled stop in Bali due to security reasons, that old bugaboo that keeps raising its ugly head. We were quite disappointed at this, and had to wonder why the stop was scheduled in the first place if things were still so bad there, but consoled ourselves with the news that we would have an extra day in the Perth area to make up for it. This seemed liked small consolation at first, but after spending a some time here, we decided it wasn't such a bad substitute after all.

We have never been to the western side of Australia before, but quickly decided that we quite liked it. As in the rest of Australia, people are extremely friendly here, the standard of living is quite high, the cities (and there are darned few of them) are inviting, and the weather is very comfortable for most of the year. The people who live here love it! We have been extremely impressed with the transportation systems in Australia's major cities, and much of it is free. And we made very good use of it during out time in Perth.

The ship actually docked in Freemantle, which is just south of Perth. It was the site of one of the America's Cup competitions and the Australian winner, Australia II, is housed in the Maritime Museum here. Freemantle is a small town with plenty of charm and character. Its architecture makes me think of the old West, but with more elegance. It has rows of old terraced houses, and I include a photo of the main hotel in town which is typical of this architecture.

Perth, on the other hand, is the major city on the West coast and is an incredibly prosperous city, without a lot of the problems that often go along with that. It straddles the Swan River and doesn't suffer from pollution or smog because it wisely banned heavy industry from the immediate area. This city is young, lively, and exciting. Mike and I went into the city three times over two days. We first time was on a coach tour that gave us an overview, the first day we were docked. The morning was overcast, but the weather soon cleared off and heated up. After spending the afternoon in Freemantle and seeing all we wanted to see there, we decided to take the LRT into Perth for dinner. A 30-minute ride on a train that comes every 10 minutes dropped us right next door to the restaurant area called Northbridge. We wandered through streets filled with all kinds of ethnic restaurants before settling on an Italian restaurant (what else?) called Sorrento. We had the most wonderful dinner, sitting outside and watching the passing parade of people around us. The manager of Sorrento comes from the outskirts of Rome, so I had a chance to practice my Italian. This lady, named Lieta Acquarola, was a real character. She and her husband had run a very popular cabaret in Perth in the 70s and 80s that brought a lot of stars, such as Tom Jones, to Perth. She had her own cooking show on television and received a number of Hospitality awards. I know all this because she handed me a copy of a newspaper article about her life! She retired but couldn't stay away from the business, so now works evenings at Sorrento where she draws in the customers and mothers everyone. We had a lovely evening sitting under stars, eating great food, sharing a bottle of wine, and sipping on some limoncello and grappa before heading back to Freemantle on the LRT. We thought we were being wild and crazy, getting back to the ship around midnight, only to be met by a lot of the crew going the other way for a night on the town.

The next day, we decided that we needed to see more of Perth, so back to the city we went. The downtown area is just wonderful because they have closed off a number of streets to traffic so you can wander at will and window shop in peace. The city runs a free bus service that takes you all around the center of the city. In many ways, the energy of the city made me think of Chicago, with better weather. It was such a nice day that when it was time to go back to the ship, we took a high speed catamaran down the Swan River back to Freemantle Harbour. This gave us a good look at the incredible wealth in the city - almost the entire river was lined with houses and condos that ranged in price from a million dollars to over $68 million!

I think Perth takes the prize so far for best send-off. We had a big band playing on shore as two sets of antique planes did fly bys in formation. There were four biplanes and eight small propeller planes buzzing over us. As Mike said, all they were missing was a wing walker. Where was Eddie the Grip when we needed him. People were jammed onto the balconies of the terminal and lined up all along the reefs that jutted at least a mile into the harbour. Talk about being made to feel special.

Tomorrow we make our last stop in Australia, at the small town of Exmouth which is bounded on one side by the Indian Ocean and on the other by the outback. Temperatures often reach into the 40s Celsius, although we get a break in that it will only be 37! We have booked a tour in a 4-wheel drive vehicle, so that should be exciting.