Sunday 29 March 2015

Trains and boats and a plane - pt 2

Part 2 of our adventure covers our stay in Adelaide.

We happily checked into the Stamford Plaza Hotel on North Terrace, in the city centre, opposite Parliament House, a short stroll from the main shopping street, Rundle Mall and just down the road from the casino (which strangely enough is in the railway station building).
We were up on the top floor, and although at the rear of the hotel could see through buildings to the hills. We had a quick unpack, a little rest and then around 8.30am we hit the streets looking for breakfast. We walked through Rundle Mall, but apart from McDonalds didn't spot anywhere open. Then we saw a very popular breakfast cafe, lots of people - $18 for breakfast or $12 for a Turkish BLT. We walked around the corner and there was another little cafe - $11 for breakfast or the daily special - an egg and bacon toasted sandwich and a small coffee for just $8. (we decided on that and chose to upgrade the coffee to a medium for an extra 50cents.) If breakfast hadn't been included in our hotel package this would be our start to every day in Adelaide.

Then we walked to Victoria Square and caught a bus down to Port Adelaide.

I had decided that we'd had enough rest on the train and we needed to get out and about. We'd checked out what was on in Adelaide and what we wouldn't be seeing on our included tours, we decided to visit the National Railway Museum.
The bus took us through some interesting suburbs and we were soon in Port Adelaide. We vaguely remembered visiting the Port when we were travelling 'almost around aus' but had been to visit the markets not the museums.
We walked around to the museum and found that the SA Aviation Museum was just down the street, and the SA Maritime museum was close by too. They had a special offer whereby if we got a 'stamp' at our first museum we would get 25% off admission at the other museums, within a 3 month period. What a good idea.
It didn't cost any extra so we got our stamp.












We had a lovely wander around the trains and exhibits in both sheds, investigated the goods yard and went for a ride on the little train around the site so it was time for an ice cream and a sit down.
We were sitting in the shade when one of the volunteers came by and we started chatting. He took Michael off to show him something particularly interesting and when they returned we asked for a recommendation where to eat lunch. He started to tell us and then decided that as he had to move his car anyway he'd drive us around there and drop us off.
We had a choice of two cafes, one had a large lunch menu and the other was a busy bakery. We chose the bakery and enjoyed a very nice Spinach and Feta Quiche (me) and a meat and potato pie, which was like a shepherd's pie, in a pastry shell (Michael).
Then we walked back to the Railway Museum (only got slightly lost) and continued down the street to the SA Aviation Museum.



 We got our discount admission and entered. It was just one hangar but the exhibits were well presented.


 Their pride and joy was a Spitfire, but it is privately owned and only open for close inspection on certain days of the year, at an extra charge.(today was not one of those special days).







There were a couple of interactive displays, an early simulator, and a 'press button' for the Red Baron's plane's propeller to rotate and guns blaze.
 (I did that one twice).



 We decided not to 'do' the Maritime Museum, 2 out of 3 was enough for us so around 2.15pm we found our way back to the bus stop and got the bus back to the city, and our hotel.
We went up to our room and both relaxed so much that it was 5.30pm when we woke up.
Around 7.00pm we ventured out to look for dinner. We found the fact that smoking is still allowed if dining al fresco quite strange and very off putting, (as well as making the place really dirty with butts lying everywhere).
We walked around the block and ended up with 'Australia's Best Pizza'.
We dined in as we didn't want to take the pizza back and smell out the hotel room. A very nice 'Beef Diablo' pizza it was too. Then we went back to watch tv and relax before our 3 days of tours began.
We asked about wifi in the hotel and were not surprised to find that it is not included (unless on a different/business package). The charge was 40c/minute and could be booked in 20minute sessions! It's not even free in public areas, why is Australia so far behind the rest of the world? When looking at hotels overseas nearly all of the hotels offered free wifi and reading trip advisor and travel writers' comments, most people expect it these days. Most cafes offer free wifi so what is the issue with hotels?

After an excellent, very relaxing sleep we woke at 7.30am, showered and went down to breakfast. What a feast, the orange juice was so good we had 2 glasses. There was so much to choose from and the chef was there in a cooking area in  the centre of the dining a room to cook any eggs fresh for you.
We couldn't linger too long over breakfast as we had to get ready and be outside by 8.40am for our coach trip.
Today's tour was the half day Adelaide City Highlights.
It was the usual, hotel collection run around and then back to the bus station to disperse into various coaches for various tours. Today our collection coach was going to be the city tour coach so we didn't have to change seats.
There always seems to be something happening in Adelaide and at the moment the Fringe Festival is on, Womadelaide music festival is about to start and the touring cars were racing around the streets last weekend. As one of the parks that we were going to visit is the site of the Womadelaide event we couldn't go in, the driver did a quick diversion and we sat on an overpass road to see an O -bahn bus go by. (Been there, done that).
 

We stopped for a look around St Peter's Cathedral. The foundation stone was laid on St Peter's Day (29 June) 1869, and although services began in 1877 the structure was not completed until 1904. There were lots of lovely stained glass windows. I love stained glass windows, but don't usually like modern ones, I love The Magdalene Window.


 It was installed in 2001, it 'acknowledges and celebrates the role of women in the Scriptures, in the history of the church and in the forefront of social change in SA'.
The coach stopped for about 30 mins at the Cathedral but my quick look around didn't take that long and when I spotted the Anglicare Op Shop around the back, I was off. I bought one blouse and was back in plenty of time.
The next stop was the Haigh's chocolate factory, which everyone on the coach (apart from us) was really excited about. As the door of the factory/shop opened and that sickly sweet smell hit us, we headed off for the coffee machine and sat outside whilst they indulged. We were traffic watching (like people watching in shopping centres but done outside), and spotted a bright red Ferrari gurgling slowly along. It turned into the parking bay at the factory and the guy headed into the offices - obviously a Haigh himself, there's good money in chocolates (even if no one outside SA has heard of Haigh's chocolates!)
The chocolate shop was the last stop on the tour and we were dropped off in the city centre, at the top end of Rundle Street Mall, next to a Haigh's chocolate shop. We wandered down through the Mall, doing a little shopping and stopped for lunch at a food court (Felafel and salad sandwich for me, Vienna burger for Michael). The food court ran between Rundle Mall and Hindmarsh Square, it was almost next door to the little cafe where we'd enjoyed breakfast on our first morning in town.
Michael went back to the hotel, to read the paper (siesta) and I wandered around the shops. I took my time and even tried on clothes that I wouldn't normally look at - nothing bought though.
The rest of the afternoon was spent just relaxing and reading.
Dinner was at a little curry place near the hotel, next to student lodgings so quite cheap and cheerful. I had a really great fish curry but Michael's beef curry was a little too authentic for him - lots of bones and gristle. Two curries and a shared iced tea cost us $25.40. On the way back to the hotel we bought dessert - an ice cream, then we settled down for another night in front of the telly.

Another good night's rest, shower, lovely breakfast and wait outside the hotel and we were ready for our tour of the Barossa Valley and Hahndorf.
This time we had to change coaches at the terminal but everything went smoothly and we were soon away. We drove up to the vineyards through the Adelaide Hills, a scenic route which avoided the burnt out area and road closures from a major bush fire about 6 weeks ago.
First stop was morning tea at the Lyndoch Bakery - coffee and Beesting cake.




 The cake wasn't as rich as I'd thought it was going to be, but we still shared a slice rather than a whole one each. Then it was on to more serious things - wine tasting at Jacobs Creek Winery.



We had a little talk on the history of the vineyard and how things are today with the company now being owned by a French company. There are some cork trees on the estate but the first 'harvest' was not succesful, the cork was too uneven in quality. They are hoping for better luck next time, but in these days of screw caps it's not a great disaster.




Then we had a 'sensory experience', smelling a couple of 'flavours' and then tasting the wines. We had a 'blind tasting' to finish off and I'm slightly ashamed to say that I got it wrong and Michael (who was only smelling, not drinking the wines) got it right!

All of this before lunch -
we headed back to Lyndoch and the Chateau Barossa for lunch.



It was a very, very nice 2 course meal and I enjoyed a glass of sauvignon blanc to wash it down. We had a quick look at the Hermann Thumm collection of antiques, mainly glassware. The pride of the display was a Meissen porcelain figure of a coach and horses, apparently there are only two of these particular pieces in the world, one here in the Barossa and the other in Buckingham Palace. The other connection with the Queen is a 30,000 roses, rose garden which was opened by Her Majesty (QEII) and is the largest rose garden in the southern hemisphere. When she visited and opened the garden the Queen had lunch in the 'Barrel Rooom', where we'd had our lunch, I wonder if she had a nice glass of wine too? We didn't stroll around the 30,000, I just took a quick stroll across the lawn.



Then it was back on the coach and a drive across to the village of Hahndorf.
Hahndorf is Australia's oldest German settlement, with tree lined streets, quaint cottages, craft shops and galleries.



We had 45 minutes to wander around. There was a very 'commercial' German shop selling cuckoo clocks, cow bells and liederhosen, all the things a tourist could want, but at a highly inflated price.  (Aprons that made you look like an Alpine maid were $17.50 in Lyndoch at the bakery, here in Hahndorf the same thing costs $27). In the free on board magazine on the Indian Pacific there had been an advert for Hahndorf with a note saying 'Bring this ad into the tourist centre and get your free gift' - so I did. I don't think many people actually bother because the gentleman in the very sleepy centre, was a bit taken aback. He eventually produced a box and asked me what colour I would like - I got a free pen. But it doesn't have Hahndorf written on it, it's from the Adelaide Hills Tourist Office.
We found a cafe with outdoor seating and watched the world go by.








 A little out of place but very friendly this panda was really sweet. Then it was back on board the bus and a scenic drive back to Adelaide. Our driver, Martin, took the old road down the Hills and as there was virtually no other traffic we were able to crawl along spotting koalas sitting in the tree tops. The SA koalas are bigger and darker than the other Aussie koalas, we saw about 5.
 What a great day out - free wine and then koalas!!!
We were back in our room by 5.30 and decided to get a take away for dinner, I went to find something but after discounting a couple of old chicken rolls from Woolworths decided that Subway was the better option. A $5 bottle of local Merlot helped it go down rather well.



Another day, another tour so we were outside waiting for the coach by 8.40. Once again the coach was going to be the one for our day trip so we stayed aboard, changing seats this time to get up front. It was a full bus, 45 of us.
 Our driver, Terry, seemed a little 'wooden' but he gave an interesting commentary.(By now we are very tired of hearing how SA is the only Australian State not founded with convicts, they were free men. Let's not mention how poor the state is, the convicts got the better land!?)
We headed up through the Hills and even though we were on the new freeway not the old road I did spot a couple of koalas in the tree tops.
Around 11.00am we arrived at the Murray River and Proud Mary.





We had a welcoming cup of coffee as we boarded and took a seat in the dining area next to a window. Coffee over we headed outside, up to the upper deck and enjoyed the scenery as we slowly cruised along the river.






We saw quite a few pelican, egrets, heron, galahs and corellas. There were lots of willow trees on the river banks, although not Australian natives they are thriving. They were planted by early river boat men, to help define the banks of the river. As with lots of 'good intentions' they are now causing a problem and there is some effort being made to remove them in some sections of the river. The red earth of the banks, the cliffs and the white barked gum trees were very pretty.






Then we were called back to the dining room for lunch. Everyone was being very polite and returning to the seats that they'd had for their coffee so we had a lovely window seat to watch the world go by as we enjoyed lunch. An excellent lunch it was too. Chicken, ham, crayfish, prawns and lovely salads. All too soon we had returned to shore and it was time to disembark.(And time for the chef to relax, and have a cigarette).





We got back on the coach and drove to Mannum.We got out at the town's lookout and enjoyed the beautiful views up and down the river.





Then we went into town and had about 45minutes free time to wander around town. We hopped on board the  free, chain ferry across the river, staying on board for a round trip.



Then we walked up and down the main street, bought an ice cream and (once it was finished) re boarded the coach.
We drove to the little village of Woodside where we stopped at a chocolate factory - not an expensive, flash place like Haighs this place, Melba's was much more low key. More interesting and openly commercial selling lots of 'moo cow' oriented produce. Next door to the chocolate place was a cheese factory, Woodside Cheese Wrights. They had a lovely selection of cheeses, including goat's cheese rolled in ash. Haven't seen such nice cheese since we were in Tasmania.




We bought a nice cool drink and sat in the shade before heading back on board and heading back into Adelaide. We decided not to change buses at the bus station, we decamped and headed down the street to Chinatown.



We had dinner in Chinatown, in a very noisy, busy food court - very authentic asian. Then we strolled through the malls and made our way back to the hotel.
We ordered our 'boxed' breakfast for the morning as tomorrow we have an early pick up - 6.15am.   So we had an early night.

Next morning we were up bright and early, having our box breakfast (cereal and milk, juice, very small muesli bar and even smaller biscuit). The hotel dining room opens at 6.00am so we went down and got coffee and toast whilst waiting for the coach.
The coach arrived a little late, 6.25, and filled up from hotels all over Adelaide. More people got on at the bus station and then we headed out of Adelaide, south to Cape Jervis. We were towing a trailer with mail for the island and stopped in the little town of Yankalilla to pick up some pastries from the bakery, to take over too.
In Cape Jervis we boarded almost straight away and found seats at the front, looking out across the water.

                      

It was so cold on board the ferry, we didn't have coats, Michael just had a lightweight denim shirt and I had a lightweight scarf. We snuggled together to keep warm. The ferry left on time, 8.50am and we slowly edged across the Backstairs Passage to Kangaroo Island. The trip took 45 minutes and then we were off to look for our island tour coach. There was quite a bit of confusion but we got the right coach and climbed aboard, finding the last 2 seats together, right at the very back. More people boarded and we soon had a very full coach of 45.  Glen was our driver, tour guide. He was Kangaroo Island born and bred, having given up farming to be a tour guide.





 Our first stop was at Seal Bay, home of the Australian Sea-lion, and the second largest breeding colony in Australia. We walked down to a platform overlooking the beach with a ranger. Then we were escorted onto the beach, there were strict safety rules in place for our protection as much as the sea-lions, we had to keep at least 10 metres from the animals.










We only had about 10 or 15 minutes on the beach, but saw lots of seals in that time, lying around on the beach and surfing ashore. On our way down to the beach we hadn't noticed but there were quite a few seals lying in the sand dunes, one or two lying under the platform. Once we'd spotted on or two, we saw them everywhere.










Then we were back on the coach, off for lunch.
Lunch was described in the brochure as 'aussie style lunch in a charming country setting' it was at Vivonne Lodge. Well, I've had better meals and I don't think I've ever had a potato salad with uncooked potatoes before.
 I have since contacted the tour operator and told them my gripe, and have been in touch with the Lodge manager, who strangely seems to be more occupied with the notion I had that the lodge was for sale than my comments about the food quality).
We continued our tour of the island's west coast calling in at HansonBay Wildlife Sanctuary. We did eventually spot a couple of koalas sitting up trees. Then we realised that there were orange marker posts under the trees that had koalas in them. It was still difficult to spot the little grey balls in amongst the leaves.




All too soon, time to head back on board and carry on westward to the Flinders Chase National Park. We headed down to the Remarkable Rocks,a cluster of granite boulders sculptured by the weather, perched on top of a granite dome which rises steeply out of the ocean. We went for a walk and a climb.






Very interesting but then the weather turned chilly and it started to drizzle.

We drove down past the Cape du Couedic Lighthouse and then we got out of the coach to walk along the boardwalk with a viewing platform overlooking a colony of New Zealand Fur Seals. Michael stayed up and chatted to Glen whilst I wandered along the boardwalk to the first viewing platform and looked down on a group of seals lazing on the rocks below.





The pathway continued and went down to the beach via 40 or so steps, where there was a view of a rock formation called The Admiral's Arch. I didn't carry on down to the beach, 40 steps down meant 40 steps back up!
We had a quick stop at the visitor's centre on the edge of the National Park
and then it was time to head back to the eastern side of the island.





 We arrived back in Penneshaw with time to grab a bite to eat before boarding the ferry and sailing back to the mainland. It was just as cold on board, but this time we had a nice hot coffee and found seats out of a draught.
Back at Cape Jervis we found the coach back to Adelaide hotels and were surprised to find the seats behind the driver vacant. We sat down, strapped in and were soon enjoying the nice smooth run back into the city. We were dropped off at 10.20pm and enjoyed a nice cuppa tea and a hot shower before bed.
What a long day and we seem to have picked up a virus - sneezing, sore throat runny nose and cough. Bugger!

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