Our second stop in Australia is Adelaide, the capital of the South
Australia state. Adelaide is in a great
location sandwiched between the Lofty Mountains and the Southern Ocean. The city has wonderful views enhanced by its
setting between green hills and the waters of the Gulf of St. Vincent. Named for Queen Adelaide, the wife of the
British King William IV, the city (to include the South Australia state) was
settled around 1836 by free people and is the only city/state not founded as a
penal colony. Adelaide was one of the
first planned cities of the time, designed by Colonel William Light in a neat
grid pattern interspersed with town squares.
That grid pattern still holds, making the streets of Adelaide’s central
district well-defined and easy to navigate.
Today Adelaide is a charming, laid-back, but mostly overlooked city in
Australia. It is located far from the
other major cities of Australia (its closest neighbor is Melbourne which is 450
miles away). And all it has around it are
the mountains, the outback desert and the sea to Antarctica.
Up through the 1950s, Australia was a very conservative country. Hundreds of books like Catcher in the Rye, A Farewell
to Arms, Animal House, were
banned. Even the book Childbirth Without Pain was considered
too risqué for Australian citizens. But
in 1968, Adelaide changed all that (for a while at least), when they elected a
young, progressive premier. Banished
books were now available, nude bathing was permitted on beaches, homosexuality
was legalized, and Adelaide became the hippest city in Australia. Unfortunately, after the premier’s wife died,
he retired from politics and Adelaide slowly reverted to its former,
uninteresting, obscure existence.
Today, Adelaide has over 1800 acres of parkland, more than most other
cities. This reflects the desire of the
early settlers to create a landscape close to the ones they had in England (a
sort of cure for homesickness). Looking
at Adelaide’s parks, you would never guess that Adelaide is the driest city, in
the driest state, in the driest country.
We left our hotel in Melbourne for the short walk to the Southern Cross
Train Station to catch the Skybus back to the Melbourne Airport. We were flying on Virgin Australia. Once at the terminal, we checked in –
everything is down by kiosk – baggage weight, baggage tags, and boarding
passes. Once we figured it out, it was
very quick and easy and after depositing our bags at the bag check, we quickly
passed through security and were on our way.
We had about a 2 hour wait for our flight, but the Virgin Australia
domestic terminal is very modern (with free wi-fi) and very efficient. Boarding was very efficient and at 12:10 we
were on our way for the short (1 hour) flight to Adelaide (Adelaide is 450
miles from Melbourne). The flight was
uneventful, except for the pilot’s pretty hard landing (we think he may have
been former Navy or else he wanted to wake everyone up). We gained a ½ hour (Adelaide is only 17 ½
hours ahead of Denver) – thank goodness the computers are able to keep up with
these time changes! After collecting our
luggage, we found the tourist booth where we got the City Shuttle and in 10
minutes we were on our way out of the airport.
The shuttle cost $10 AUS/person, but it delivers you straight to your
hotel.
We are staying at the Adelaide Riviera Hotel on North Terrace St, considered
the grandest street in Adelaide. It is a
very nice hotel, but it does not have a bar or restaurant – it does have a mini
bar in the room with small bottles of wine for purchase. The weather in Adelaide is very sunny and
hot, although today there was a gentle breeze.
We walked down North Terrace St. to the Swarthmore Hotel that our hotel
had recommended for dinner. They were
having happy hour in their bar so we enjoyed a couple glasses of beer and wine
while watching a woman’s rugby game. Now
that is another game I can’t really understand.
The ball is like trying to capture a hot potato and doing something with
it – kick it, punch it, toss it, tackle it, grapple with it and hope that
somehow you get it across the goal line!
For dinner I had a beef schnitzel with a prawn and garlic cream sauce
and Bill had lamb that he cooked on a hot stone at the table. Both were very good, but very large. And of course they came with chips (French
fries).
Wednesday was very hot (at least to my thinking). We started our day at a little outdoor café
called the Peter Rabbit. You sat at
wooden picnic tables and ordered your meal at the front counter. I had the scrambled eggs and sourdough toast
while Bill had poached eggs and toast. I
have learned that Australian coffee is very strong and thick so I have switched
to tea. I think Bill may be switching as
well. He said today’s coffee was very
bitter.
We then started our walking tour.
Most everything to see in Adelaide is off of North Terrace Street. We stopped first at the Holy Trinity Church,
Adelaide’s first church and the largest Anglican church in South
Australia. The foundation for the
original church was laid in 1838 and the church quickly became a landmark with
its ‘peaked cap’ top tower and the Vulliamy Clock.
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| Holy Trinity Church |
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| Inside the Trinity Church |
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| Inside the Adelaide Railway Station |
From there we walked across the street to the Adelaide Railway Station
which opened for business in 1856. It
was the first government-owned and operated steam railway in the British
Empire. Today it is the central point
for the metropolitan train network and nearly 40,000 people use the station
each day. This is not the station that
the Ghan uses for its trip across the outback.
That station is on a freight line in the southern part of the city.
There are two major universities on North Terrace Street – the
University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia. This week is orientation week for the
upcoming semester so the area is teeming with college students.
From the Train Station we walked passed the Old Parliament Building
which was not opened as Parliament was in session. The security officer told us we could go to
the Adelaide Parliament House (right next to the Old Parliament Building) and
we would be able to go into the public viewing area and watch some of the
proceedings from the House of the Assembly that was due to start at 1030. We decided to see how another country’s
government functions. They ring a bell
for about 5-10 minutes prior to the start time so all the members can assemble
in the room. They sit at desks on either
side of the room while the President of the Assembly sits on a high desk in the
middle of the back wall. When it is time
to start the proceedings, the doors are closed and everyone stands up. Then a woman came in carrying what appeared
to be a large gold scepter that she placed on the desk in front of the
President. Then the President said a
prayer and the proceedings started. They
were discussing an amendment about domestic abuse and we listened while one
Assembly member spoke against it as not being fully vetted, while another spoke
for it. Each person had 10 minutes to
speak. We left at this time so we don’t
know if there was any official outcome from this discussion.
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| Old Parliament Building |
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| Parliament Building |
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| National War Memorial |
Just across the street from the Parliament and next to the Government House was the National War Memorial commemorating those who served in WWI. The Memorial was funded by the government of South Australia, making it the first Australian state war memorial to be confirmed after the war. We then went to the Migration Museum which traces the history of the
early European migration and colonization of Australia. There was also a section on the devastating
effect this migration had on the Aborigines.
It seems unfortunate to me that these actions in the name of
colonization, expansion, empire building and religion resulted in the
destruction of so many native cultures.
By this time the temperature had risen so we decided to take the tram
to the Botanical Gardens where we were going to visit the National Wine Making
Center. Like Melbourne, the trams that
run along the Central Business District are free. At the center they had displays and exhibits
on the history of winemaking in Australia and the types of grapes that are
grown here and the various wines that are produced in each wine making
district. They also have an open cellar
that is one of the largest in the Southern Hemisphere with about 38,000 bottles
of wine. Now that is big wine
cellar! There is also a room for wine
tasting. The first evidence of grape
vines in South Australia was in 1837 when Richard Hamilton brought some
cuttings over from Cape Town, Africa. He
planted them in Gleneig just 6 months after the Governor had proclaimed this
area a new colony. We did not do any
wine tasting as we have a wine tasting tour on Saturday to the Barossa wine
valley.
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| Barossa Valley Wines |
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| Wine Cellar |
By now we were hot and hungry so we took the free tram back to our
hotel and walked to the street behind the hotel to look for a restaurant. We found a little Italian café where Bill had
a pizza and I had a chicken chef’s salad.
Then it was back to the hotel to rest and shower before dinner. We will finish our walking tour on
Friday. Tomorrow is an all-day tour to
Kangaroo Island.
Tonight we walked down the street to an Argentinian restaurant – La Boca
Bar and Grill. We had a lovely steak
dinner. Bill had bread with his and I
had a delicious butternut and sage puree.
Not quite as good as in Buenos Aires, but very close.
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