Perth and surrounds (and Christmas in between)

A lovely boutique winery in the Swan Valley

Getting the music set up for a lazy Sunday winery lunch

Charlie outside the Feral Pig Brewing Company - Mmmmmm

London Court shopping arcade Perth city

Portcullis and all!!

Mock Tudor building in London Court

Christmas decorations and busy, busy, busy

Perth's bell tower housing the Swan Bells

Me having a go ringing one of the bells - look at the muscles (or flab) on those arms!!!

Charlie in the simulator helicopter at the Sci-Tech museum

New Norcia - Benedictine Monastery Town - the only one in Australia

The Priory - off limits to tourists, where the Monks live and pray

Another beautiful building at New Norcia

Altar and part of the beautifully painted dome ceiling

The hotel at New Norcia - originally built as accommodation for Queen Isabella of Spain

Charlie enjoying an Abbey Ale - 6.9%!!

Me in Kings Park with the Swan River in the background

Air walk in Kings Park

One of the beautiful trees in Kings Park

The sisterhood fountain in Kings Park

Memorial Kings Park

Charlie enjoying a beer at The Lucky Shag waterfront bar

Mmmmm Noah in the "naughty corner"

Little Miss Cool

Goodies for Santa and Rudolph - Noah wanted some as well

Brrrm, brmm - lucky boy

Lexi is happy!!!

Well its been a long time between blogs - so much has happened and its going to be hard trying to remember it all but I will give it a good go. 

We arrived in the beautiful Swan Valley and stayed in a lovely caravan park amongst the vineyards and had lots of lovely days exploring the area and visiting the wineries, Margaret River chocolate factory where we had lots and lots of samples and cheese and coffee factories.  After all that we still found that we had room for a lovely lunch in one of the boutique wineries and wined and dined the afternoon away whilst listening to some live music.  What a wonderful life!!

We had a good look around Perth city and found it so easy to get around as the public transport system is so easy and being Seniors we had cheap/free travel.  There are free buses which go all around the city called CAT buses and we made good use of them, jumping off and on to see the major sites.  We went to the Bell Tower which holds the Swan Bells. The towering glass spire seems to dominate the vibrant Barrack Square where Perth meets the Swan River.  A bit of history for you - The Bell Tower includes the twelve bells of St. Martin-in-the-Fields (one of Englands most famous churches in London) which are recorded as being in existence from before the 14th century.  They are one of the few sets of royal bells and are the only ones known to have left England so it was good to see them and also to have a go at ringing them!!

We also had a good look at the London Court shopping arcade which is modelled on old England Tudor buildings.  Its a bit of a step back in time and is quite quaint.  It has lovely souvenir shops but they are all a bit pricey but its a nice place to sit and have coffee and lunch and people watch.

We also paid a visit to the Benedictine monastery town of New Norcia which is the only one in Australia.  We had a guided tour of the town which is totally owned by the Benedictine monks and self funded.  We found it very interesting but unfortunately didn't meet one of the monks that day - they must all have been praying or maybe they are just not a tourist attraction!!  We made sure we went into the hotel which was originally built as accommodation for Queen Isabella of Spain in the 1800's when she was due to visit as patron of the town but in the end due to ill health she didn't make it.  It was licenced in the 1950's - we had a lovely lunch there and tasted the Abbey Ale which is made by the monks and also their wine.  We also bought some lovely New Norcia bread which was yummy.

We paid a visit to the beautiful Kings Park which is 400.6 hectares and located adjacent to the Swan River and only about 1.5 km from Perth.  Nearly two thirds is bushland and there are lovely recreational areas, cultivated gardens, birds galore (feathered and human kind).  We had a lovely day there just wandering around, doing the interpretive walk, walking along the tree top walk and finally collapsing exhausted in the lovely restaurant for another beautiful lunch and glass of wine.

Christmas was then fast approaching and we had made arrangements to store the car and caravan at a caravan park in Perth suburbs and flew to Adelaide to spend time with 2 of our lovely grandchildren and their mum and dad.  We had a lovely time there and got caught up with the excitement of Christmas as seen through the eyes of small children.  Unfortunately all of us were sick at varying times over the Christmas period so it was a bit subdued but at least we all spent it together.  We also skyped the grandchildren in England and we saw our gorgeous new grandson Sam for the first time - he was just 11 days old.

After 12 days in Adelaide we flew back to Perth, picked up the car and caravan and tootled off down to Coogee Beach near Fremantle to spend some time at the beach so Charlie could get back to what he loves doing most - fishing, but will leave that for a separate blog so for now its

Adieu from The Wandering 2s.