Adelaide, Australia

Today is Adelaide. This city is much different then the last two. It has only about 1½ million people. It is cooler here and very dry. There are a few wetter spots where they grow grapes for wine. These would be on the leeward side of the few low mountains they have. This is the major wine producing area of the country. They also manufacture automobiles here. Mitsubishi and the GM cars called Holden. Right next to the ship dock were hundreds and maybe thousands of cars and light trucks getting ready to be shipped out or had just been shipped in.

The harbor, like the last one in Melbourne shows up on the map as a gap in the land and again a large gap. As we pulled in to dock a three piece band was playing and singing Aussie folk songs. They played for about two hours. It was a nice touch.

Unlike the other two cities, there was not much built around the harbor. The land had been considered too marshy until recently. Now there were some new developments started. Housing costs were about 1/3 of those of the last two cities. The downtown center is about 20 miles away and about 30 minutes by bus or cab.

We took an afternoon tour of the area. The downtown wasn’t much. Some tall buildings but nothing special. They have museums located one next another in the downtown area. The biggest attraction is their single low mountain named Mt. Lofty. It is only 2,100 feet high but it is their only one so they make a big deal about it. There is a park at the top as well as a large lookout with a restaurant and junk shop. Yes, Bobbi bought more junk. She always buys junk. Then I get to shlep it home and when she forgets about it I wait until she is not looking and throw it away. She never says anything about it because she thinks she lost it or misplaced it. Don’t tell!

Mt. Lofty has a view of the whole town looking toward the harbor but the harbor was too far away to see the ship. After looking, wasting money on junk, and peeing we went on to the next major attraction, Hahndorf. A town built by German immigrants in the 1800s. It is a street of more junk stores, restaurants, small hotels and gas stations. The entire town is about a mile long. Bobbi did it. To this point she had found didgeridoos costing up to about $150. Most of the larger ones were more like $60. Now she came to a store with not real ones that were made by artists or so they claimed. These cost as much as $1,200, but they included shipping. No matter. She can’t have either. Some were over five feet tall. Even Bobbi couldn’t find anything else to buy after walking around the town for about an hour.

Next it was back to the ship on a slightly different route. Here again the driver was also the guide and speaker. He was very good and admitted he was driving on the wrong side of the road, but said he had too because everyone else was doing it.

There was a free shuttle bus to downtown. This one was provided by the city and not the ship as was usually the case. When we had been there it did not look like there was anything worth going back for so we gave it a pass. Again, every local we encountered was very friendly and eager to give directions. You could tell, right away, you were not in France. While this was not my favorite city, it is a great country.

Mt. Lofty Sherm Out.

(Posted on behalf of Sherman Rootberg)