A Day in Perth

Saturday march 20, 2010 A Day in Perth
We had a wonderful sleep last night. The first order of business was to dispose of the rental car...it was far easier than we thought it would be. The hotel concierge called Avis and requested on our behalf that the Perth office come pick up the vehicle and they agreed with no charges involved for a different drop off location. We then checked out of our room and immediately checked into our suite for the next 2 days. Our balcony is much larger. We then set out for Kings Park. We caught a city bus which are all free which dropped us off at the far western part of the park. It seemed like we walked for miles but was in fact about 2 kilometres to get to the top of the park where the visitors centre is. The views of the city were fabulous. The park covers over 400 hectares and is split up in sections i.e. botanical which did not have any flowers in bloom as it is the beginning of the winter season, bush lands, synergy is a large play area for children. There are also many large open areas for picnics. We spent about 2 hours here wandering around. We then caught a Double Decker explorer bus to do a tour of the city. The ride felt great as there was a wind blowing and it didn’t make the heat of the day seem so bad. We saw lots of areas such as Burswood which is where the casino & tennis dome is located, Northridge which is the older part of the city, and the Riverside area where the swan bells are located. We also got an overview of the inner city streets and where the eateries and shopping areas are located. We finally hopped off the bus at the waterfront area and wandered around for a while before heading back to the hotel which was about 1 ½ kilometres away and mostly up hill. By the time we got back to the hotel, I was having excruciating pain in both knees and my feet were throbbing. You would think after 5 weeks of a lot of walking I would be more used to it but that is not the case. I couldn’t find my Aleve so I had to substitute with a stiff drink of rum & coke. After putting my feet up for a while, I felt much better. We were served chocolates in our room. This was a lovely touch. Later we set out again to have a late supper. I’m so tired of walking today that I wasn’t very hungry but Sheldon needed his vittles. I was so glad to get back to the room and I’m not leaving until the morning. We booked a cruise on the Swan River and wine tasting for tomorrow. I can hardly wait.