A day in the CBD

Mike and I decided to spend Saturday in the CBD (Central Business District).  There was an art installation I really wanted to view and it's always fun to wander around the city.  I remembered to take my camera so what follows is mostly a pictorial record of our afternoon. 

We got up and indulged in the luxury of homemade pancakes because we do have the best pancake recipe ever which was generously shared with us by the Yallingup Resort and Spa.  About once every six months pancakes sound perfect.  With bacon from Reid's organic butcher up the street.  Yeah baby :-)  Happily replete we headed towards the train station around 11am and arrived in 12 minutes time at the Perth station.

The train station straddles the dividing line between the CBD and the Northbridge area with convenient walkways and bridges and tunnels leading either direction.  We headed CBD side in this instance...exploring where a brand new exit lead us. 

Turns out it popped us out in a shiny new building right next to the Herdsman grocery. Remember that last blog post about the prices of things? Well here are a couple of pointed examples in digital form: $1.79 ear of corn and $30 six pack of grape juice.

After exiting Herdsman we made our way to the main Murray Street/Hay Street mall areas.  These are two pedestrian only stretches of downtown that fill up with buskers and shoppers on the weekend.  And sadly yes, already the Christmas decorations are up.

 Everybody likes Target, even in Perth

 This odd and rather tiny tooth garbed person walked through one shopping area with us

 I was surprised by the decorations featuring a demure Virgin Mary and son on rondelles over the streets.

In an underground food court I spotted the following three shots.  First of all...Mexican and PASTA?   Secondly, I love that patrons get real china and utensils even at the most pedestrian food court.  And the tables are bussed for you.  As a product of self serve America I inevitably feel guilty leaving my rubbish out for someone else.  Thirdly, $9.50 for a bowl of fast food chili?  As Mike said scornfully "it probably was mostly beans too".

Pleasing juxtaposition of modern/construction/traditional 

 Street performer gathering a crowd.  There was also an opera singer, one of those 'statue' performers, a guy with a wee baby in a stroller playing an accordion, a guy playing a Chinese zither, and a rally in support of equal rights for gay marriage.

Crossing over the bridges into Northbridge we passed the Art Gallery of WA, currently hosting the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice with some fabulous and iconic abstract and surreal pieces.  Picasso, Mondrian, Ernst, Arp, Duchamp, Giacometti...gorgeous stuff.

 Public space in front of the gallery

 And the point of the trip - the Dachshund UN.  The installation lasts 45 minutes utilizing dachshunds to represent the UN Human Rights Council.  It is magic! :-)

As an added bonus we saw another performance piece called "We Will Build Our Own Mountain".  To be ecologically correct patrons could pledge to skip one shower a week for 40 weeks to offset the water used to build the ice structure.  Awareness of water issues is key.

We finished up downtown, came home for a bit of a breather, and then headed out to the ballpark for the evening game - Perth Heat vs. USA Allstars. 

It was a good day.