We only had half a day in the city. After exploring the logistics I booked us into the Adelaide Caravan Park for a night in order to have a safe place to leave the van. It is also very convenient for catching a bus into the centre of the city. We love Adelaide, it is small, easy to navigate around, and different enough from Perth to make it interesting.
After getting ourselves ready and driving to the caravan park it was around midday before we headed off for the bus. We went to the Visitor Centre to get our free transit cards, which was where it was discovered that Stephen had forgotten his seniors card. Apparently a pension card is not as good as a seniors card for the buses. Nevertheless, the kind ladies gave us each a pass and just warned him that if an inspector got on the bus he might be in trouble. The bus driver on our way into town had let us travel for free anyway.
As we were hungry and I wanted to see the Adelaide Markets we went there for lunch of a slice of pizza and soup. Stephen went off to visit the art gallery and I wandered around, had a coffee and bought a nice pair of shoes, as you do. The shoes were light to carry, but not so the can of spray for protecting them from damp and mud. I like having shoes that have velcro rather than laces, but these ones have laces, to set the tightness you require, then zippers for normal use. Perfect!
The woman serving had been to Perth in her younger days in a VW campervan and they had stayed overnight in Kings Park. I don’t think you could do it these days, though I told her about our cheap camping spot at St Kilda and the fact that we can get away with staying overnight on some Perth beaches.
We planned to visit Chinatown for our evening meal as it obviously would like nicer with lights than during the day. A bit of exploring and we found a kind of food hall, with staff wearing masks and only one or two other customers where we felt safe in eat indoors. It was getting a bit cold outside and would have been an endurance test to sit having a meal.
We liked the decor, which was traditional Chinese, including the toilets with decorative basins and floors. Stephen had his camera when he went in and got a photo.
The food was good and it was sad for the staff to have so few customers. Although there is a campus of Flinders University in the city there was still a sense that there weren’t enough people around in the evening to fill all of the restaurants and bars. Or perhaps it was also due to our meal being a bit expensive for students. We shared one dish, which was plenty.
Catching the bus after dark worried me, but actually the city felt safe and it was still relatively early, about 7.00 p.m. when wer headed home.
I rushed through a load of washing, our towels and flannels, which needed their own separate wash, whilst we had a hot drink and a banana (and a chocolate). We were very tired for some reason, perhaps lots of walking, and went early to bed.
I’ve booked us into the Belair Caravan Park for three nights as we are meeting a friend who lives near there tomorrow. Stephen’s other friend, who we are meeting today for lunch, has suggested a venue at the beach, in the opposite direction, but I checked the distances and it is about 35 kms from the restaurant to the caravan park, not too bad. And it should be a nice day after the fog lifts😀.
Tiled bathroom floor would make a lovely quilt pattern