2/10–Adelaide–early afternoon

We’re late into Adelaide because we’ve just spent 24 hours or so sailing through a weather system with fairly rough, swelling seas and overcast, cloudy skies.  Not the most pleasant of sea days – but except for a very poor decision on my part to go see a lecture in the theater at the VERY front of the ship (yeah, I got too cocky, I admit it!  Sigh…..thank God for Dramamine!) – it’s been a very relaxing day at sea!

Now – we are pulling into Port Adelaide 3 hours late which has made our decision on what to do disappointing, but easy.  Our original plans were to rent a car and head to the Barossa wine region.  But since we are pulling alongside at 11am, it’s 30 minutes into the city to get the car, 1 1/2 hours drive to Barossa and all the wineries close at either 4:30 or 5:00.  Well, our decision has been made – jettison the car and hang out in town for the day.

Turns out to be an excellent decision, especially since it took us forever to dock (first time in this port for our ship) and then almost an hour to secure the gangway.  As we slowly docked, we at least had entertainment –a  great local band on dock was playing music. Tons of people watching us come in, welcome “hostesses” dancing and clapping.  It was quite fun for a while.  Until  we actually came alongside.

Then it was like watching the stooges….poor crew!  Gangway on deck 4 – line starts downstairs. Captain not happy, gangway on deck 5 – we just happened to be in the right position, we’re in front of the line now.  Crew drags entry machines (what we call the bing-bong machines) up to deck 5.  Gangway swings over – still not happy.  Crew drags bing-bong machines back down to deck 4.  Captain decides to move the ship 5 meters.  Gangway swings back to deck 5.  Crew drags bing-bong machines back to deck 5.  Gangway still isn’t sitting on the deck right.  We’ve got practically every officer on the ship out there.

Finally they bring in big blocks of wood to support the gangway and steps to make it stable enough to work.  It was  a riot – almost literally one with everyone grumbling – but we were just sort of grinning watching everything going on feeling badly for the poor staff getting so much grief and trying to figure out what to do!

We finally get off, and head for the free shuttles provided by the town of Adelaide.  Great bonus – they are running free buses all day long into town – 30 minutes.  They drop us in the heart of the central business district, right on the Rundle Mall (open air pedestrian street) and give us maps of the mall area and the town.  Buses run until 7pm so we’ve got all the time in the world.  Nice!

And nice it is.  The town is really fun. First of all its got tons of great stone architecture dating from the first colonists in the 1830’s. Secondly, there are restaurants everywhere – over 100 within a square mile. Thirdly, the whole town is surrounded by open area parklands, so you are within easy walking distance of green space from anywhere within the CBD. It gives us the same feeling as Asheville – sort of edgy, young, vibrant – and not just a little quirky!

They also have a free bus that loops around the city and gives you a little hop on hop off tour to the town.  We take the loop, looking at the great stone buildings, the courthouse, university and other interesting buildings.  We hop off on East Terrace – the outskirts of the CBD and walk along the edge of the Botanical Gardens to the National Wine Center.  We figure if we can’t make it to the Barossa wine valley, we can at a least learn about the process in the interactive museum.  It’s a wild building – shaped to remind you of a wooden cask.  There are lots of great displays too.  Smell-o-vision things where you can smell the fruity notes of a particular wine.  A 3-D country map that explains each wine growing area.  And some very interesting decorative features – like this wine bottle wall and the walls full of different wine labels.

They are also having an art exhibit in one of the Gallery halls with a local artist, Miranda Lloyd, who’s paintings are so different and tactile.  We love them and have collected all her info for when we get home (shipping might kill us – but we’ll see!).

After the Wine Center, we stroll through the botanical gardens, enjoying the nice warm day and the beautiful sunshine.  The gardens are huge, with interesting buildings, shrubbery and fountains…

We’re getting a bit peckish by now, so we start to peruse the different restaurant options.  Of course we choose the Stag Restaurant for their slogan (not a place for you Maggi!):

We sit outside under the portico and enjoy a surprisingly good Chorizo appetizer with beer and “Squealing Pig” Sauvignon Blanc (I could NOT resist that!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up – the Tandanya National Aboriginal Culture Institute.