Thursday, May 21, 2015

Perth Adventures: More rain, some bells and a bar of gold

Woke up with a plan to catch the ferry to Rottnest Island and see some Quokkas, but Mother Nature had another plan. It was raining. Pouring actually, but every once in a while, it would clear up and the sun would come out and I would get my hopes up . . . and then it would start pouring again. Oh well, we rarely get to see rain, let alone a nice downpour so we were still happy and switched to Plan B.

We started at the Swan Bell Tower in the Central Business District of Perth. The tower houses the Swan Bells which play once per day at various times during the week. They are rung by hand, not automatic machine, which makes them a bit unique. This is also one of the only towers in the world where the public can see the bells and the bell ringers. They even invite the public to learn to ring the bells on occasion. Unfortunately, today wasn't one of those days, but we did time it so we could see and hear the bells.



We also had a pretty good view of the Swan River from the top of the tower between the bursts of rain. We actually went up, had to come back down and go up again in between the rain showers.
 Might have to make this one my desktop wallpaper through the Abu Dhabi summer.



After the bells, we decided to do a tour of the Perth Mint. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any photos, but did have a nice tour. Very informative about the history of the gold rush in Western Australia and we got to see a live demonstration of gold bar pouring.

By then it was time to find a late lunch and we spent the rest of the day 'chillin' at a coffee shop. Actually chillin because it was pretty cold for us! :) We were loving the fall weather, but weren't used to being a bit damp and cold.

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