Clockwise Around Aus: Perth Part 1: A trip into the City

I really like Perth. If I had to live in a capital city (other than Sydney, as I grew up in Sydney and still have a very fond connection to it), I would happily live in Perth. We were only there for 9 days, and could have spent many more days exploring and enjoying the area, but even from that glimpse I am pretty sure I could happily live there. The main north-south train line runs along the centre of the highway and has been very well laid out with bus and train interchanges. Parking is only $2 for the entire day at the station car parks on week days, and free on weekends, there is free parking within the city on weekends and transport is so much cheaper than Sydney. We loved Kings Park – what an amazing green space within the heart of a capital city – and I had nowhere near enough time to explore all of the city, or do other interesting things like visit the museum, the Tutankhamen exhibition and the art gallery. I could happily go back some day and spend a lot more time there. We didn't even have great weather, experiencing our first rain in about 9 weeks, and it was too cold to enjoy the beautiful beaches, but despite this, I still really enjoyed Perth.

We spent one day exploring the City. We had promised the kids a train trip into the city but on the morning we planned to head in, when we got to the train station it was pouring. We tried to get organised, getting the pram out of the car and Rory in a jumper and both Greg and I were soaked before we'd even managed any of that, so we gave up, jumped into the car and drove into the city. We found free parking with about 600m to walk to get right into the main shopping part of the city... how good is that? I am used to Sydney with its $50+ per day for parking.

We walked through a mall, checking out the shops. Our poor “deprived” kids were fascinated by the window display of Myers. There were some summer kids swimwear displays and some Christmas ones and our kids were so excited. I guess that's what happens when they never go to “the big smoke” and have only seen small towns and roadhouses for over a thousand kilometres!

We walked through a small mall and found the Roc Candy Shop, a hard candy shop. The two people working there were just beginning to make lollies that read 'ho, ho, ho' in the centre and the shop is set up so you can watch the lollies being made, so of course we stopped. We've seen hard lollies being made on a couple of occasions now, starting in Sovereign Hill, but Greg and I had been wondering how they make the words and other more complicated patterns and pictures inside and we finally had a chance to see. It was the first time they had made ho ho ho lollies so they had to work through the process of making them and we got a good look at the thought process. It was very cool! And we got to try some of the candy while it was still warm. It was delicious! Lime flavoured and very yummy. We bought a big bag of their product ends and off cuts, which was good value. It was full of all sorts of things, including names for weddings, initials and love hearts, watermelon looking ones, minions, Freo promotion lollies and lots more.

We went looking for a games shop so I could look at some more board games or card games. It was in the basement of London Tower... how cool is that? Or am I just a geek? The London Tower mall is pretty cool. It was built in the 1930s and is designed to look like an old English streetscape. I love this sort of stuff.

We also ventured past the old fire station, which is a beautiful old building. I really need to go and visit London or Europe and soak in their heritage and historic buildings. Old architecture is so much more interesting and beautiful than today's.