Not a busy day. We went to our local cafe for the first time in the morning.

We had lunch in the Winnie for the first time this week, then went to Port Adelaide, a bus and train journey of about 50 minutes.

Stephen wanted to visit the Maritime Museum. I just wanted to have a cuppa and wander around with my camera.

The town has many interesting buildings, but the overall effect is rather shabby and neglected. Cafes shut at 4.00 p.m., that sort of thing. The man in the museum had recently visited Perth and Fremantle. His view was that they needed a university campus in the town to bring it to life. Certainly Adelaide City benefits from having two university campuses (or campi) – I did check on Google. The city is full of young people wearing backpacks.

Still, Port Adelaide has character and the man said that Port Adelaide is an extremely busy port, very productive indeed.

Quite noisy traffic noise in this video.

We came home to an easy meal, reheating some of the food I cooked last night. I did a last load of washing (before we leave Adelaide Caravan Park), processed photos and videos for this blog, and then relaxed. Goodnight.

Shopping and a trip to Hahndorf

The featured photo is of an Aboriginal Fine Art shop in Hahndorf. The beautiful little village in the Adelaide Hills is actually very hard to photograph due to roadside signs  little cohesion in the way things are set out.

We wanted to do some shopping to set ourselves up for travelling north on Saturday. We packed up the Winnie to use as our transport for the day.

This evening we have quite a few shopping bags on the floor and I am not sure yet where everything will go. We have a meal cooking in the electric pressure cooker already.

It was a steep climb up into the hills, and appeared to even more steep on the way down. Going slowly kept the Winnie in 3rd gear, which acted as a brake. There was a special lane for trucks and buses, but they all decided I was going too slowly and passed us.

By the time we arrived in Hahndorf it was about 1.30 p.m., so well and truly time for lunch. We chose a cafe that had vegan food, but also German sausage meals. The mix of types of food was part of the slightly disorienting style of the place.

There was a wood fire, very nice, but the whole effect didn’t work. The village caters to tourists and tries to be all things and ends up being nothing in particular.

The little toe that I injured back in Port Augusta is still rather painful. I bought a pair of cheap slipper boots and wore them when we were walking around today. It made quite a difference, no pain, but they got wet in the drizzle.

Still, we felt it was a successful day, with shopping completed and visiting a place we had heard much about and were keen to see.

Lunch with Glenys

Today we met up with an old friend for lunch. She used to visit Jeff Carroll from time to time and we enjoyed her company very much. She insisted on paying for today’s lunch as she feels we had her to dinner many times when she was visiting Perth and it was a chance to return to hospitality.

She doesn’t come into the city very much, so finding a place to eat was a matter of luck. We chanced upon a Thai restaurant which happened to have a Thai chef, the food was excellent. Glenys chose to try a whole fish, which she and I shared and Stephen finished off, we also had a salad and Stephen had steamed brisket.

Afterwards we found a quieter place for coffee and cake. We talked the whole time about our lives – by 4.00 p.m. we were getting a little hoarse!

Before and after meeting with her, Stephen and I took the free circular bus to get a feel for the city. There is an inner circle and outer circle, and we were on the one that went to a stop in North Adelaide, which is about 1.5 kms from here.

It was a beautiful sunny day, but became quite chilly by 5.00 p.m. when we were walking home.

We had a busy morning, changing all the linen and doing washing, then washing the floors. All done by about 11.30.

We walked to the Botanic Gardens. As it was World Environment Day today the Gardens were thick with groups of school children – covering just about every surface, marching along in lines and being photographed by parents and teachers. They appeared to be having a good time, but we gave up after about half an hour and walked a bit further into the city.

We had a look at Ayers House, belonging to the man that Ayers Rock was named after. He was a prominent businessman. His house started out quite modestly with nine rooms, but gradually expanded over the 40 years he was living there. On his death it went through lots of different purposes, but is now run by the National Trust as a museum.

We walked further into the city, had lunch and did some errands, then caught a tram to Glenelg. In the inner city, the tram behaved like a tram, stopping at all stops, but as we left the city behind, it became more like a bus, only stopping when needed. Unlike a bus, it travelled in pretty much a straight line, but still took about half an hour to get to the beach.

At this stage we wanted refreshment and found a lovely place with specials on coffee and cake. We paid a little bit extra for Stephen’s chai latte.

Then it was a straight through run on the tram to the Adelaide Railway Station, then catching our bus towards the Paradise Interchange (or bus to Paradise, if you prefer).

We checked the washing, it felt very cold, but appeared quite dry. We are airing it in the van before putting away.

We had a lazy start, waking up around 7.30 a.m. and then spending a long time having our first cups of tea and reading our iPads. We have free wifi here at the caravan park. It is slow, but I only notice when I try to upload photos. Everything else works quite well.

It is discount day at the movies today, and as rain was forecast, we thought it was a good day for visiting the Art Gallery and seeing a movie. We enjoyed the Art Gallery, which is housed in a really beautiful old building, with a very good collection of art.

The movie we saw was The Viceroy’s House, set at the time of independence for India. The director was Indian, with very good actors. We found the love story a bit distracting as the history of what happened was very interesting. But, overall we came out feeling that we had been on a journey, which is the feeling one should have after a good movie.

There was an IGA store right behind the Cinema complex, so we picked up some supplies and arrived back at the Winnie by about 5.00 p.m. We were feeling pretty tired.

Yesterday and today I’ve been taking photos in the city, but so far don’t feel I can do justice to it. There are many lovely old buildings in the area where we have been walking and we are finding Adelaide to be a very attractive city. The people walking around seem to be mainly quite young, students from the University perhaps, which helps with the lively atmosphere.

We are booked into this caravan park until Sunday. We will catch up with Stephen’s friend John again on Thursday and he has offered to take us on an excursion, perhaps to the Barrossa Valley. We showed him the Winnie when he dropped us off after dinner last night, so he understood why we might not necessarily want to drive around the city in it. Especially as our washing is hung around the place.

We are also going to catch up with another friend whom we haven’t seen for a few years. She will meet us in town on Wednesday.

Our last day will likely be spent getting in supplies of food and filling up our water containers and fresh water tank ready for heading off on Sunday.

Here we are at the Adelaide Railway Station. Stephen wanted to catch up with a friend who lives here and he and his wife have asked us over for a meal. We had a quiet morning at the caravan park, then caught the bus into town for lunch. We’ve been walking around getting a feel for the city. We also spent some time at the Adelaide Museum. We were able to have our usual Sunday FaceTime session with Matt. We enjoy being able to see him as well as speak with him.

It is cold here. Matt told us it is very pleasant in Perth at the moment. He and his friends spent time out in the park yesterday, and they were sitting outside when we rang.

Not much to say about today, but we like this city. They have some really beautiful old buildings.