World Cruise: Perth and Fremantle, Western Australia

We arrived in the port city of Fremantle on Sunday, February 23 (Saturday, February 22 Florida time) for an overnight stay that would give us time to visit both the port of Fremantle and the city of Perth. Since it was a Sunday, we decided to explore Fremantle the first day and save Perth for the second day. We were able to walk everywhere in Fremantle on our own right off the ship; no shuttles needed. We like it that way because we have total freedom to explore on our own. It was a very hot day (95 degrees+) with no clouds. Despite the heat, we had a great day exploring this city. First, we walked to the historic prison and took a tour. Established in the early 1800's it was one of the main prisons where England sent its convicts when it could no longer send them to the U.S. Some of the convicts were actually political prisoners rather than criminals. The conditions were brutal. Even after the English convict era, it continued to operate as a prison for Western Australian criminals until 1991. The Australians have done an amazing job of preserving this historic landmark. While the tales of convicts and prisoners is kind of grim, the bigger story of human persistence and resiliency is inspiring.

Next, we visited the Shipwreck Museum in Fremantle which houses recovered artifacts from ships that wrecked off the rugged coast of western Australia dating back to the Dutch explorers in the late 1500's. The Dutch aggressively explored and mapped the western coast, but never realized any profits for all their efforts and hardships. It is very interesting history.

After visiting a prison and a shipwreck museum, we decided it was time to lighten up a bit so we headed to the fishing harbor area along the wharves where there are restaurants and pubs. On a Sunday afternoon, it was a happening area full of local families and tourists. It was like a compact Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. We found the famous Little Creatures brew pub and stopped in for a couple of pints and lunch. It is the biggest brew pub we have ever seen taking up 3 warehouses on the waterfront -- and it was packed. After our beers and lunch and purchasing a souvenir T-shirt we walked back to ship from there.

Since it was an overnight stay for us, we walked back into Fremantle after dinner that night. We walked to an entertainment area called the "Cappuccino Strip" and had a nightcap in a local pub. It was a treat for us to be able to spend a long day and an evening off the ship. We loved it here!

Linda at the Prison Gate

Prison grounds - chapel in front and barracks on each side

Inside the prison barracks

A typical cell

The Gallows where 43 men and 1 woman were executed

Fishing Harbor area of Fremantle

Inside Little Creatures Brew Pub, a huge operation

Pale Ale at Little Creatures Brew Pub - Yummy!!

Little Creatures Brew Pub

On Monday, we took a commuter train from Fremantle into Perth, the capital of the state of Western Australia. Because of its location on the western side of Australia, Perth is considered the most isolated state capital in the world. It is a large city of 1,900,000 people. We spent a couple of hours in the morning walking around the central business district and found a very cool shopping area in the middle of downtown. We also walked to a beautiful city park with lots of interesting art features that was located near the historic state Supreme Court building. The Swan River runs through the middle of Perth down to Fremantle, then into the Indian Ocean. We took a ferry ride back to Fremantle to return to our ship. The ferry ride took about an hour and 15 minutes and was terrific. All along the river bank were magnificent homes perched up on bluffs overlooking the beautiful river including a $57,000,000.00 mansion. There were marinas all along the shoreline of the Swan River and the yachts moored there were mostly 35' or larger. We were amazed at the homes and yachts all along the way. It was a great day of sightseeing for us.