Feb 21st, 2023 Day 49 of 128

Fremantle, Australia

Good morning from Fremantle. I had a bit of an emotional reaction when I look outside this morning. Seeing the gangway that read welcome to Fremantle and being at the exact same spot we disembarked that horrible day in March of 2020. Took my breath away a little bit. But today is a new day and new adventures awaited us. We grabbed breakfast in the lido and met our excursion group at 9:00 am. We took a bus and visited the Fremantle prison. It was in existence from the time is was built by convict labor in 1852 until it was decommissioned in 1991 when the new prison opened. Prisoners were tortured there mentally and physically. Megan begrudgingly volunteered to be the “prisoner” and they demonstrated how the  inmate was flogged and whip at a whipping post. We also saw the gallows where they hung 44 prisoners over the years. We heard some great stories and enjoyed the history of the buildings. From there we took the bus to the West Australian Maritime Museum. We got to see the history of boating in history from fishing up to the America’s cup competition. There is a submarine on sight as well but it is currently closed to the public because it is getting repainted.  After our tour we headed back to the ship for the afternoon. Today is Fat Tuesday and there is a Mardi Gras celebration on the ship tonight. We saw them setting up all the decorations. They hid gold coins all over the ship and Megan and I spent an hour hunting for them as part of a scavenger hunt. We found 17 of them. After we hunted we decided it was a great opportunity to get to go swimming and Megan wanted to try out a new pool toy/ball she bought today. It was about 86 degrees today so it was a lovely way to pass the time and beat the heat. There was a contest tonight for whoever found the most gold coins. But we were not on the ship because we went  back out this evening for a dinner cruise on the Swam River.  The lights from the river were beautiful to see. We cruised all the way from Perth back up to Fremantle and right by the Zuiderdam. It was lovely to get to see the ship from the water looking back. Especially at night. We made it back to the dock around 10:00pm and then had approximately about a hour bus ride back to the ship. We got on the bus loudly and jovial from the dinner cruise and by the time we got back to the ship half the passengers had fallen asleep, Megan included. It was a long and late night and I was happy to be home. We went right into our pajamas and shortly there after to sleep. We get to spend the night in Fremantle and I have something special planned for tomorrow. But you”l have to wait to find out what…Love and Hugs.