Day 11 - Discovering Perth

Thank you Mitch for becoming our first follower on this blog! And great to hear from Catherine.

Our day started with a very successful visit to Camera House where we purchased a "multi-card reader" that has enabled us to download or is it upload all Ray's photos from his new camera (the expert at the shop was most impressed with our cameras). 

Then it was happily on to the Art Gallery of Western Australia.  We were just in time to listen to a presentation by indigenous artists from Arnhem Land, one of whom yesterday was awarded the First Prize in a national competition of Indigenous Art. We really enjoyed this gallery for its variety of works the current exhibitions and the ambience of the spaces -both contemporary and heritage utilizing the old courthouse.

There are some great works by the Heidelberg school and other international artists of the 19th and 20th centuries but our favourite was a work by John Longstaff entitled "Breaking the News". Not far behind McCubbin's  famous "Down on his Luck".



Brass monkey hotel Northbridge



We explored the Northbridge area of Perth before boarding the free tourist bus and taking a circuitous east west ride to King's Park. By mid afternoon we were hungry so we dined in the cafetaria and then took in a lovely walk through the immaculate gardens. The highlights here were the WA wildflowers (starting to bloom for spring) and some magnificent Australian trees, boardwalk, water garden and the commanding views of the Swan River and of the city.

View of Perth from King's Garden

In King's Gardens

It started to rain as we hurriedly returned to our apartment with some basic supplies and this is the first rain we have seen since leaving Melbourne. The weather up until now has been very kind to us and even today, before the weather changed, was the hottest day in Perth for 2 months!

War Memorial King's Gardens

We headed out in the rain looking for somewhere to eat. Having walked the length of the Mall we decided that we were close enough to "Miss Maud's Swedish All You Can Eat Smorgasbord" and so Scandinavian it was!  Two hours later we staggered home with full bellies and very satisfied. The only surprise was that the bus driver's promise of all you can eat for $30 was a fair bit off mark when we went to pay the bill!. It was still worth it.