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Monday, March 21, 2011

Across a Continent - on the road again...


The Indian Ocean - fall in Perth
Four hours in the air from Melbourne to Perth - and no small Saskatoon type plane.  This is one large continent for a relatively small population.  We said our goodbyes to Melbourne on Thursday, and are now in Perth.  Because of luggage restrictions on domestic flights ( ok - not quite true - for $15 a kilo, you can take all sorts of extra luggage.....or....buy a seat at twice the cost), we are down to one suitcase each.  That would have easy enough for us except that Rich's suitcase included a small barbecue....can't leave home without that....and Joan's held a printer...hmmmm...today's essentials have morphed a bit.
Port Melbourne City Hall

Our farewell tour of Melbourne the evening before we left included a two walk walk by some of our favourite sites and happenings, including:

A municipal City Hall with great pressence

Some 'run of the mill' Victorian architecture

The South Melbourne market - where produce and meat/fish were always fresh and generally cheaper than the grocery stores.

Some great old building - perhaps a theatre at one time, nearby our apartment on Victoria street

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Theatre ?





The market

 












Just another building
We had grown to really like Melbourne, but are thinking we will say the same of Perth - for different reasons.  Perth is a sprawling city.  Fortunately, we are close to downtown - but separated by King's Park and the river.  We are on the edge of King's Park, which is hectares and hectares big.  There are many bike trails, and parks everywhere.  The campus of Western Australia is beautiful, and has a number of great old architecturally interesting buildings.  Our apartment is reminiscent of Paris - in size only - back to about 400 square feet - though this one has a lovely little outdoor patio.

Home sweet temporary home


baseball of sorts.....
Added feature - we can watch cricket everyday in the park across from the apartment - or play tennis on the multiple grass courts a block away, or swim, or bike ( Rich couldn't stand not having wheels, so managed to find a used bike to buy today).




We are a distance from the ocean - well - about a ten minute drive....so won't be by it every day, however had a colleague of Rich's from the U of WA drive us around on Sunday - the water is so warm and clean.  It was - well - just what we hoped the Indian Ocean would be.  We had  a tour of Freemantle -an extension of Perth - architecture inspired by a gold rush and similar to Melbourne.

Flying

Beach scenery


Freemantle buildings

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