Queen Mary 2
We’ve been fortunate in recent years to have several major cruise ships visiting Fremantle. On Thursday, the Queen Mary 2 visited for the second time and Lego Lover and I made the trek to Freo to see this spectacular ship again. We took the train from a local station and found it went directly to Fremantle via Perth. Last year we went to see the Queen Victoria and had switch to a different train line, which also involved going into a different station in Perth. The direct route made for a less stressful trip on a hot summer’s day.
The Queen Mary 2 arrived three hours late that morning so the departure time was pushed back to 7pm from 5pm. I was really happy about this because the earlier departure would have had the ship sailing off into full sun and photo opportunities would have been quite limited. This also meant we didn’t have to rush around too much when we got there.
We arrived in Fremantle around 4pm and saw the ship in all its glory as the train pulled into the station near the Fremantle Harbour. There were quite a number of ships in the port this week, including the USS Shoup which was stopped here for a few days of rest and relaxation for its sailors. At least some of the crew also volunteered their assistance to help with the cleanup from the terrible bushfires from a few weeks ago. The US vessel was situated just in front of the Queen Mary 2 but we were still able to get a pretty good view from further down the quay as it curves around.
As it was still a few hours until the ship was due to depart, we popped into the Maritime Museum on the quay near the South Mole for a quick visit. We have a family membership there and have often just dropped in for short visits whenever we find our way into Fremantle. For some reason I didn’t take any photos of the museum but have this one from a previous visit. It was taken from North Mole which is across the harbour.
We also got a pretty clear view from higher ground on top of the old Roundhouse.
We discovered the Roundhouse while finding our way down a foot/cycle path between Victoria Quay and Fishing Boat Harbour. I’m pretty sure we’d never followed this pathway before but it seems to be a nice and direct way to get between two of our favorite locations in Fremantle.  The Roundhouse is the oldest building in Western Australia and was originally built as a jailhouse. I didn’t get any decent photos while we were passing but there are some photos of the building here.
We ate dinner at Kailis Bros., one of three big fish and chip restaurants in the Fishing Boat Harbour. Lego Lover likes it best because they are the only one to sell chicken strips, which are served with a big batch of chips. Lego Lover preferred to eat inside but it was quite warm and sticky, even with the air conditioning running. I’m sure it would have been nicer outside where a breeze was blowing. Instead, I found a table directly under one of the air conditioning units and we stayed reasonably comfortable.
After dinner we took our time walking back to the quay as it was still well over an hour until the ship’s departure. There wasn’t anything resembling a crowd at this point so we had a wide choice of viewing locations. We plopped down in the chosen spot and found the ground wasn’t nearly as hot as expected. The seabreeze had picked up by this time and it was feeling quite pleasant along the harbour. We had a nice time sitting there and we both took lots of photos, including some of our shadows.
Not long after we’d been sitting there, some security people came around to tell people they needed to stay behind the blue line that ran along the edge of the quay for safety reasons. We were already fine as we remembered this from last year’s visit. For some reason, they security people weren’t too bothered later on when the crowd was bigger. 
My guess is they were expecting a much bigger crowd and were concerned that people might push in front of each other. As it was, there was space for everyone to get a “front row” view. The appointed departure time of 7pm came around but there didn’t seem to be any activity that might indicate impending movement. Eventually we did start to see smoke rising from the funnel but it wasn’t until nearly half past that the ropes were removed and then the ship began to move its way out.
By the time the ship started making any progress, lights were on from all over the harbor.
Even though we’ve seen this ship before, it was still quite magnificent to see as it passed by us on its way out of the Fremantle Harbour.
It was about twenty minutes later we said our farewells as the ship eased out of the harbour and into the Indian Ocean.
We continued to watch until the ship disappeared from our view then made a move towards the train station. By this time of night, the trains only depart every half hour and we arrived just before the 8pm train departed. There wasn’t time to purchase a ticket for Lego Lover (I was using the Scientist’s transit card) so we decided to head towards the Woolmarkets shopping centre nearby to get more water. The bottles we’d taken had been empty for hours by this time and we were both quite parched although it was quite a pleasant evening for sitting by the harbour and watching ships passing by. The return train ride was relatively uneventful. There was a decent crowd on board right up to Perth. Then just about everyone got off and another crowd joined us as we went on to our destination. We reached our station, found our car and were home by 9:30pm. It was pretty good time for a trip mostly using public transportation since the trip by car takes about the same time during the day.
