Travelling with my overseas visitors - Denmark WA

My parents and a friend arrived from Portugal on the 2nd December to spend 5 weeks with us.

They hardly had time to recover from their long flight when I whisked them off to the south coast of Western Australia. 
We traveled to Denmark where we stayed for 6 days taking the opportunity to visit all the touristic sights around the area.

Denmark is a rural town with under 2500 residents and is an attractive town for retirees and people seeking a country lifestyle.
It's income comes from timber, cattle and dairy and in later years from wine producing due to it's fertile soil, with tourism being a growing business.

The weather turned cold as soon as we got to Denmark and we were thankful that our little rented cottage had a fireplace, it certainly got used every single night!

Our home for the 6 days was Francisca's Cottage - cosy, well decorated and well equipped too. It was situated in a quiet residential area surrounded by bush about 3km out of the town centre and 7km from Ocean beach.

Francisca's Cottage from the front

The cottage seen from the back garden

It was too cold and wet to go for a swim, but we managed to get clear weather to take some photos of Ocean's beach. It's a popular surfing beach, but only a couple of surfers braved the cold sea...

Grey skies...

Denmark's Ocean Beach, taken from the lookout - Inlet at the end, and surf live-saving club house at the top

Denmark is a very clean and tidy town

The Denmark River with the South Coast Highway Bridge

The park by the river had some friendly ducks that ate bread from our hands

The friendly duck couple waiting for food

On the Inlet the swans, ducks and pelicans were abundant

The "Man chair" outside a little boutique was a great idea - men can sit and read while the women shop!
The sign reads - Ladies shop without a care while he relaxes on this chair.

Outside  the Ocean Beach camping park we saw this quirky family of statues

On our last morning, when we returned the chalet's keys to the Denmark Visitor's centre, we noticed this map on a wall and it said we could pin our country or town if not yet pinned. So we put a pin in Portugal.

Stay tuned for more adventures around Denmark.

Monday Mural - Flowers and Stripes in red

I hadn't used public transport for a while, but when my family visited recently we caught the train into the city. 
We alighted at the Esplanade station and Busport (soon to be renamed Elizabeth Quay station) so we could catch one of the free buses (CAT's) that go around the metro area and when leaving the station by bus I saw a collection of 4 beautiful flower murals.

Thanks to Grace who managed to read the signature I have been able to trace the murals to Leanne Bray.

There are more sections of this mural that I'll show over the coming weeks.                                                                                          
Check out other murals around the world by clicking here.

Monday Mural - in Denmark I

Another mural I found in a laneway in the town of Denmark (Western Australia) during our holidays.

As can be seen from the second photo, it was a collaboration from many artists.

Pity the rubbish bin was in that corner...

For more murals from around the world please click this link

Monday Mural - in Margaret River, WA

Hello, hope you all had a lovely start to the year and I wish you all a wonderful 2016.

On my recent trip to the south west region of Western Australia with my overseas visitors, 
I found this mural by Australian artists Kyle Hughes-Odgers and Ian Mutch  on the main street in the town of Margaret River (in the IGA supermarket wall)

You can check out other murals from around the world here.

Christmas in the City

I've had very good intentions to post about our recent trip down South but with visiting family at home, Christmas shopping, sightseeing, plus everyone wanting to use the computer, I've hardly had time to sit down and write some posts! So it will have to wait until the new year!

In the meantime, we went into the city Friday evening (18th) to have a look at the Christmas lights and the delightful light show in the GPO building in Forrest Square.
Hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

In the meantime if I don't get time to post before Christmas I wish you all a wonderful time with your family and friends. May you have a blessed Christmas!

One of the sides of the GPO building in Forrest Square

Today we all went into a shopping centre to buy a few gifts and Father Christmas was available for some photos. So we all posed with him for a bit of fun.

Santa and I having a laugh.