Old haunts

Our first full day in Perth was a bit of a retrospective! However, our first stop was the new Bib & Tucker cafe/restaurant which had been recommended to us. Well, it's part of the Leighton Beach development, and it just oozes “trendiness”. Certainly, our initial impression was that the Attitude (capital “A”) was consistent with this. As a result, we limited our orders to coffee, but on inspection the food menu looked good, as did the appearance of meals as they emerged from the open kitchen. Perhaps we just arrived at a bad time?

We moved on to check out Fremantle. The maze of streets, the “cappuccino strip” (in spite of the fact that there are plenty of other places these days that now have just as many coffee venues), the markets, the harbour area – all familiar, although there has been some incremental development. Lots of people around, which was nice to see, although my personal impression is that they're largely tourists (including probably visitors on working holiday visas). There's always been just a slight bit of “edginess” to Freo, and this is still discernible.

The Indiana - unchanged

Then back to Cott. Yes, lunch at the Blue Duck! And we weren't disappointed: a friendly welcome and efficient service while sitting on the deck. Let's clear the air about sitting on the open deck in Perth: the sun is often nice BUT the pictures don't convey that on most days there's a “sea breeze” from the south west which sometimes becomes progressively stronger over the course of the day, although it wasn't too bad today. Lunch was followed by a journey back in time, walking along the beachfront, admiring the dogs, dodging the joggers, inspecting the Indiana and the pylon, and completed by a stroll on the groyne.

On the way back to our accommodation we obviously drove down Loma St (again, only incremental changes) and stopped for a few minutes to look at the Napoleon Street shops: outwardly affluent as always (coffee shops, jewellers, travel agents, the original “Dome”), seemingly well-patronised. “The Grove” shopping centre is now “Cottesloe Central”, and of all things, Bunnings now occupies the space at one time occupied by Harris Scarfe.

For dinner, we went to Shafto Lane:    lots of activity, noisy, alive.....so there is life in Perth after dark, after all.