With a 10 am checkout looming, we decided to squeeze in a visit to the Western Australian Botanical Gardens, setting off at a positively un-holiday-like 7:00 am. We were confident that our Sydney tuned body clocks would wake us up in time. 4:00 natural wake up call in fact. Tick! First order of business: coffee and breakfast. Koorak was the only establishment stirring at that hour within Kings Park. We found out first hand that Perth was expensive! $5.30 for caffe latte! How could it be cheaper to dine in Sydney CBD?!
We conquered the DNA Tower and Federation walk like pros and walked back to our hotel in time for check out. Our impressions of Perth - QUIET!!! However, it does feel clean and safe, and it was pretty compact which makes exploring very easy. So although it is pretty it does feel somewhat sterile...sorry Perth!
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| Beautiful natives |
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| DNA Tower |
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| Part of the Federation Walkway |
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| Swan River and Perth City views |
We ubered our way to Fremantle. This time, our driver seemed more physically capable despite his ingrown toenail (ew...TMI). Fremantle presented a stark contrast to Perth – a completely different energy, though not any lighter on the wallet. We contemplated utilising the free bikes (available at the Visitor Centre), but promptly chickened out. Yes it was rather un-Asian of us to not capitalise on something free. However, too much construction, a distinct lack of dedicated bike lanes, and a general aversion to becoming a statistic swayed our decision. That's the story we're sticking to. Instead, we relied on our own two feet to explore the shops along the Cappuccino Strip.
Fremantle then became a mini-food tour. We indulged in an ice-cream sanga at Get Chunky which was rather apt. Our choice of calories was Chunky Delight cookie (turkish delight flavoured cookie dough with white choc chips, turkish delights pieces and pistachio) paired with vanilla and salted caramel ice-cream, topped with peanuts, biscoff and pretzel pieces. Next up we gorged ourselves with focaccia, an almond croissant, and a peach iced green tea at the retro-styled Common Bakery, enjoyed a drink at the roof top of our hotel while researching how to take selfies with quokkas, before dinner at Manuka Woodfire Kitchen. Somewhere in there, we did look for street art and visited Fremantle Prison.
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| Fremantle |
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| The interior of Get Chunky |
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Our ice-cream sanga. We chose Chunky Delight (turkish delight flavoured cookie dough with white choc chips, turkish delights pieces and pistachio) with vanilla and salted caramel ice-cream, topped with peanuts, biscoff and pretzel pieces
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| Common Bakery |
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| Eggplant focaccia |
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| A pretty good almond croissant! |
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| Fremantle Prison |
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| Street art! |
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| Roof top bar at the National Hotel. Cheers! |
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| Our very pretty drinks |
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| Apple Crumble on the left - apple spiced rum, butterscotch liqueur, cloudy apple juice and cinnamon. Winter Rose on the right - pink gin, rose Monin, soda and lemonade |
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| Going clockwise - Hummus, stracciatella, eggplant, pickled zucchini, pangratatto, flatbread |
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| Exmouth tiger prawns, apple fennel remoulade, fermented chilli |
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| Wood roasted chicken, miso sauce and pickled red cabbage. Pumpkin and almond dukkah at the back |
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| Panna cotta for dessert |
Our hotel for the next 2 nights was The National Hotel Fremantle. The hotel is right in the middle of the action with their 12 rooms nestled away from the pub area. The roof top bar area was pretty nice. Early night tonight as we have another early start tomorrow!
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| The National Hotel |
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| Our room. This was the cheapest one and it was still plenty nice |
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| Not sure if all the bathrooms were accessible but ours was |
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| The entrance to the hotel and the roof top bar |
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| Recently renovated even the stairs were nice |
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