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| Ayers House |
The first day of March turned out to be our hottest
day yet. The temperature was forecast to
be 40 C (about 104 F) and it was very, very close. We started out about 10:00 am to finish our
walking tour. Our first stop was at Phat
Coffee where we had a breakfast burrito and tea. From there we took the tram to the Ayers
House, the last of the grand mansions of Adelaide’s North Terrace
boulevard. It was the home of a
distinguished politician and Premier of South Australia who lived here during
the latter half of the nineteenth century.
The final upgrade to this small nine-bedroom home was completed about
1870. Today, as a museum, the house
stands as a prime example of colonial architecture. Unfortunately, because of the heat today, the
house was closed to the public. So the
best I can offer is an outside picture of the house.
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| Four Pigs Statue |
From there we walked about three blocks to the
Rundle Mall, a pedestrian-only premier retail outlet which opened in 1976 as
Australia’s first pedestrian street.
Today it is home to some of Adelaide’s most expensive real estate. About the only thing that separates it from
some of our high-class shopping areas is its lack of cars and its Four Pigs
Statue. This is a group of life-size
bronze pigs – Horatio, Truffles, Augusta and Oliver – fooling and rooting
around a rubbish bin. Go figure – it has
become one of Adelaide’s top tourist attraction. We even braved the 103 degree heat to see it!
From the mall we took the tram to Victoria Square, a
small grass area that has the Three Rivers Fountain, built to commemorate a
visit by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip in 1968, at one end, and a statue
of Queen Victoria at the other. The
three rivers comprising the fountain the fountain are the Murray (represented
aby an Aboriginal male with an ibis), the Onkaparinga (represented by a female
with a heron), and the Torrens (represented by a female with a black swan).
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| Three Rivers Monument |
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| Queen Victoria Statue |
Walking back to the tram stop we passed the old
Adelaide Post Office and the Adelaide Town Hall. Construction began on the Town Hall in 1863
and was completed in 1866. The tower is
named after Prince Albert and the clock was installed in 1935. It was here in 1964 that the Beatles appeared
on the balcony before a crowded estimated at 300,000.
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| Old Post Office |
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| Adelaide Town Hall |
By now the heat had gotten to us so we returned to
the hotel by tram. We chilled the rest
of day before going out for dinner at another hotel, the Mercure/Ibis, just
down the road. Bill had duck and I had
pumpkin soup and pasta with shrimp. As
it was Happy Hour we each enjoyed three glasses of wine – Sauvignon Blanc for
me and Shiraz for Bill.
Saturday, our last full day in Adelaide, was a wine
tour to the Barossa Valley. It started
about 9:30 and it took about 1 hour to reach the Barossa Valley which is north
of Adelaide. Barossa Valley was settled
by Germans who started Australia’s wine industry. Today it produces 60% of Australia’s wine and
is noted for its chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, and shiraz.
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| 1847 Winery |
Our first stop was at the 1847 Winery (formerly
known as Chateau Valdaro). The year is
that when Barossa pioneer Johann Gramp planted his first vines in the region. This is a very beautiful winery with its stone
buildings. There we tasted a sparkling
white wine and a white blend, but they are known more for their reds. None of the wines were noteworthy with the
exception of the last – a $100/bottle of tawny port. It was very smooth and very good.
We then drove through one of the towns in the
Barossa Valley – Tanunda. It was settled
in the mid 1800’s by German settlers.
These settlers were Lutherans looking to find religious freedom in
another land. The town derives its name
from an Aboriginal word meaning “water hole.” Today the population in
Tanunda is about 4500 and there are 7
Lutheran churches in this little town.
Almost all of the buildings and houses are constructed of stone as
timber in this area was very scarce while rock quarries were abundant. We stopped by one church, St. John’s Lutheran
Church, that was built in 1860 of iron stone.
Our driver drove us around the town pointing out what used to be the
main square, called Goat Square. Today
it is just an intersection with houses all around. One house does have a post with a sculpture
of a goat’s head on it.
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| Goat Square |
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| St. John's Lutheran Church |
Our second stop was at Peter Lehman winery where we
did the wine tasting in the oldest part of the building (dating back to the
1880s) and then went into lunch. Lunch
was a platter of local foods – smoked meats, pickles, cheeses, crackers, fresh
baked bread, and almonds. All the food
was grown in a 2-mile radius of the winery.
The setting for this winery is very peaceful with large graceful trees
and a green yard surrounded by grape vines.
It was here that I finally saw a kookaburra, the one bird I really
wanted to see.
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| Peter Lehman Winery |
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| Laughing Kookaburra |
The third stop was to Langmeil, just a short walk
from where we had lunch. Unfortunately
today was just as hot as yesterday, so we opted to stay on the bus and drive to
the winery. Langmeil is believed to be
home to the oldest Shiraz vineyard in the world, planted in 1843 and started its life as a blacksmith shop. This winery had a better selection of whites
than the previous 2, and the Riesling was quite good.
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| Langmeil |
Prior to our last stop, the driver drove us up a
hill to a lookout spot where we got a beautiful panorama of the Barossa Valley.
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| View of the Barossa Valley |
Our final stop was to the Lindsay Winery. Here they even had a Pinot Grigio which is
unusual for this area. It was quite
good. Bill was happy that they had a
Merlot, but he did not like it as much as others.
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| Lindsay Winery |
We then returned to the city where we had a
McDonald’s cheeseburger for dinner and repacked for our trip tomorrow on the
Ghan.
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