Trip to Freo

We had a nice day in Fremantle yesterday, although it was overcast and vaguely drizzly for much of the time.

On arrival we went straight to the Fremantle Markets to say hello to the folks. It was quite busy when we got there so we didn’t hang around too much and made our way to Benny’s on South Terrace for breakfast. We each had a big breakfast (eggs, bacon, tomato, mushroom and sausage served with toast) and shared a pot of tea. After the frenzy of last weekend, it was nice to enjoy a breakfast that I didn’t have to rush around preparing.

After breakfast we waddled down the street and browsed briefly at Elizabeth’s. I’m surprised at how restrained I was – I didn’t buy anything!

M did, though. He picked up this book.

“Perhaps one of the most sought-after and elusive conditions, the pursuit of happiness has been one of the central themes in human history. Yet do we even know what it is, much less how to attain it?”

(I didn’t need to think about what happiness is, yesterday. I just felt happy. Shucks.)

After the bookshop we wandered down the streets until we came to the Round House, a former gaol and now the oldest standing building in Western Australia. I was surprised that in all my years of visiting Fremantle, I had not visited it until yesterday! There were quite a few tourists there, including a small group of Chinese tourists who happily allowed themselves to be “locked” in the stockade to have their pictures taken.

From the Round House we went down to the Esplanade and decided to visit the Little Creatures Brewery. By this time I was really regretting not having brought the camera, because it would have been quite nice to have taken pictures of the place. Little Creatures is a so-called micro-brewery with a bar and restaurant set right in the middle of the actual brewery. So you can have your beer and food and stare at the huge tanks in which the beer is actually made. I had a middy of pale ale, while M had some Rogers’ amber ale. The flavours were excellent. They do a nice pilsner too. (Cherry, Mister might like to try it – maybe we should see if we can fit in a visit to Little Creatures when you’re here in September!) The place has a nice atmosphere and it was packed with people yesterday. Quite family-friendly too, with lots of groups of Mum, Dad, kids and grandparents having lunch.

On the way back to the markets and the car, we stopped in the park across the road from the brewery to look at the series of rally cars that had arrived in the short time we were in the pub. We joined a largeish crowd which had gathered to watch a team of middle-aged men dressed in Spiderman suits play with a series of ropes and pulleys attached to a Norfolk pine tree and a Mini car. They had great fun going up and down the ropes, pretending to be Spiderman and shooting the crowd with water pistols.

When we got back to the markets we chatted with M’s parents for a while, and then hopped in the car for home.

Thus endeth our four-day holiday.

Categories: Fremantle, Western Australia