We’ve decided to try again and are currently sitting in the airport at the gate waiting to board.
We have 6 days, booked a car and a trip to Rottnest Island with a day or so in Perth.
The flight is just over 4 hours, hopefully we’ll get to actually take off, our first domestic flight for 10 years and our first flight for about 3.
Ah the joys of air travel I’d forgotten about - the plane was delayed by about 50 minutes, there was a screaming baby a couple of rows behind me and a few people who had their masks under their chin the whole flight. Arseholes.
I had a beef pasta thing on the plane which was ok, and a glass of wine because why not?
Got out of the airport and it was raining heavily but not cold. Took a taxi to the hotel, and discovered the bin in the room was full of empty KFC and McDonalds rubbish - luckily the cleaners were just outside and they were very apologetic but it wasn’t a big deal, just lucky I found it straight away.
Dropped the bags and walked into the city, just 10 minutes away.
I wondered if Perth was still in lockdown and nobody told us because it was empty. Everything was closed and there were about 5 people around.
Walked a bit further and more people started to appear, but still pretty quiet considering it was a Saturday afternoon - a lot of the restaurants were shut, and looking at Google most of them didn't open till 17:30 / 18:00. We were 2 hours behind Melbourne, and it was now 16:00 which was approaching dinner time for us in Melbourne.
We walked around a bit and found a Tapas place attached to the Intercontinental Hotel, and it looked OK so we went in to ask if we could book a table for when they opened, but it turned out they had just started serving, so we sat down and checked out the menu - looked pretty good and in the end opted for the 'Madrid Menu' which was a set menu for 2 with lots of different dishes. I was tempted to order a side of something because it didn't look like it would be enough. It was $65 each, which wasn't too bad. I also ordered a beer, because why not?
The first course came out, a plate of toasted bread slices with tomato on top plus a bowl of olives. Very nice.
Then a plate of bread with the thinly sliced ham from Spain, with a small piece of cheese. Very nice.
Then a plate of patatas bravas, and one of calamari, and one of chorizo. A large amount of chorizo and potato.
Feeling a bit stuffed, Song said the last thing was a plate of churros, the doughnut things.
But instead came a plate of steak, and one of tomatoes.
Finally out came the churros, 8 small doughnuts filled with chocolate. I really couldn't eat anything else, then I realised they were doughnuts filled with chocolate so forced myself. Song said she would have one and I could have the rest, but she had 3, obviously saving me from myself.
Hoping that was the end of it, paid the bill and left before they offered us a wafer-thin mint.
I usually over-eat on holiday, but not usually for the first meal.
We were the first there, but when we left it was pretty full, popular for a reason.
Really nice and great value.
We walked back to the hotel, it was still warm and lightly raining.
We pick up the hire car tomorrow, will probably skip the next 5 meals.
