Perth

We arrived late in the evening, because of a delay, so we didn’t see much of Perth the first day we were there. The next morning we walked to Kings Park. Kings Park is located just outside downtown Perth, but it is still only a 30 minute walk to it and because it was sunny and the temperature was perfect, we really enjoyed it. The park has several highlights, like a tree top walk, a botanic garden and a small metal structure (known as the DNA tower) you can climb for a nice view over the park. We spend an hour or two walking up and down that tree top walk and through the botanic garden. Around midday we climbed the DNA tower, which has the shape of a piece of DNA, and walked over a part called Broad Street, to another part of the park where we had lunch. At the time we were back in downtown Perth, we decided that we’d earned a nice glass of beer. Oddly enough we happened to pass a Belgium Beer Cafe as we made our decision, so we immediately popped in for a big glass of Hoegaarden. We had a small pint of Leffe after that, but switched back to Hoegaarden because, well, there aren’t that many places in Australia where you can buy white beer.

The next day we had to do some shopping, something we didn’t particularly looked forward to, but it had to be done. After we restocked our shampoo and deodorant, bought some sandals and a fresh pair of shoelaces, we started a walking tour the Lonely Planet suggested. Around noon we visited the Bell Tower, which was far more impressive on the inside than we’d expected it to be. The Swan Bell Tower in Perth has viewing decks where you can see the actual movement of the bells as they ring, which is between noon and 1pm. Another viewing deck shows the bell players themselves and on the top you can walk around the tower. Yes, that is on the outside and yes, I know, that sounds horrible. Horrible it was, but once you’re past the whole “this is really high, why didn’t they use closed floorboards instead of those with the nasty holes in them”-feeling, you’ll appreciate the view.

Conquering your fear of small heights (we still share the fear of average to huge heights to this day), is something that needs to be celebrated. We ordered two Hoegaarden and two big pans of mussels, as soon as we were back at the Belgium Beer Cafe. The rest of the afternoon we spend on drinking some beers and relaxing in the sun.