Perfect Perth
A fifteen minute train ride this morning whisked us from Claremont where we are staying now in Bunty's unit, along the track to Perth City Centre. A perfect day of blue skies and sunshine really showed this city of green parks and Swan river waterfront off at its best.
Our first stop was the Museum of Modern Art (part of the New York MoMA group). We enjoyed the visiting exhibition "From Picasso to Warhol", I do actually rather like those tins of Campbells soup, there are so many interesting varieties. Have you ever seen Black Bean, Gumbo or Turkey Noodle? The rest of the gallery provided an interesting insight into contemporary Australian art.
Moving on we passed the theatre and popped in to see what was on. The current play was a sell out but amazingly two tickets had just become available for tomorrow night so we snapped them up. More on that later..
Strolling on we meandered through shopping streets and parks down to Barrack street jetty, the set off point for boat tours of the Swan River. We gathered information for another day day and looked around for a congenial lunch spot. "The Lucky Shag" seemed to fit the bill and served up a passable Baramundi and chips with great river views thrown in.
Post lunch we wandered over to The Bell Tower. A modern glass tower opened in 2000 as Western Australia's millennium project. Climbing the tower we were intrigued to discover that 12 of the 15 bells came from St Martin-in-the-fields given as a gift by the people of London to commemorate Australia's bicentenary in 1988. St Martins we are told splashed out on a new set, these ones being over 200 years old. Normally new bells are made from melting down the old ones so quite possibly they had been in St Martins even longer than that and certainly got a mention in the old song, Oranges and Lemons. Views from the top of the tower provided some great photos across the Swan.
Retracing our steps we ended the day back at Bunty's unit watching the sun set over the Swan and as I write the lights of Perth are gradually being switched on.