Wed. 24th April 2019
The 8:30am alarm permeated our deep sleep as we battle with jet lag, but the blue sky and sunshine outside soon made us remember where we are. Our hotel room rate does not include breakfast so we head outside and into the main shopping street around the corner where there are several cafes to choose from. After a black coffee and some breakfast we are ready to explore.
Of the museums in town it is the migration museum that tops my list. We visited the one in Melbourne on our last trip to Australia so are keen to compare. The one in Adelaide is much more upbeat and has stories of more recent people who have moved here. My recollection of the Melbourne museum is of the children shipped out here right up to 1958 (or even later?) and many used as modern day slaves. We knew about the white migration but not that it expanded to include Asians to assist with the trade to Asia and also refugees from the Vietnam and later wars. As ever with such museums, we are a bit embarrassed by our British predecessors, especially their treatment of the local Kaurna people and trying to impose British laws on them.
Before heading off again we spend a few minutes at the War Memorial, which is roped off and being prepared for the service on ANZAC Day tomorrow. Even the flower beds are being replanted. On a lighter note, we head off to see The (Adelaide) Oval which I have read is the world’s prettiest cricket ground. Our route takes us over the river which is surrounded by lush green grass and trees. We walked around half the cricket ground after peeping in at the Sir Edwin Smith stand (who?). Cricket is not my forte but all grounds look the same to me – and in this case, it seems to be Aussie rules footballers who are more celebrated than the cricketers. [Ed. Perhaps they cheat less?]
Soon bored by this, we head over to the familiar architecture of a church, which turns out to be the Anglican cathedral. Typical of a non pretentious Anglican church in layout and decoration. However it is not mentioned in my guide book. I am also not impressed by the free handout we are given which tells me that the font is where a baptism into the membership of the church of God takes place. Does the leaflet give any idea of its history or age? No!
Our watches tell us it is heading towards lunch time, so we utilise our three day visitors transport pass and catch a bus to the Central Market. We love exploring markets and this is no exception. It reflects the whole nature of Adelaide with all the different cultures shown in the many different types of vegetables sold and the many cuisines of the food stalls. From Turkish Delight, to Thai cafes, to Mediterranean stalls. Dave did enjoy the freshly cooked mushrooms from the cool mushroom stall. For lunch we settled on pumpkin soup to try and redress our diet after all the plane food and comfort eating we have indulged in since we left the UK (not to forget the yummy lemon birthday cake Dave made me with lemons from our Spanish crop).
Also to redress the balance, after viewing the impressive fountain in Victoria square, we went into the Catholic cathedral just across the way from the market. There was the obvious differences to the Anglican one we saw earlier but still plain in comparison to the South American equivalents. I always miss the old architecture we are so used to in Europe, when we visit Australia, although the centre of town does have an art deco feel to it. It’s really refreshing to see all of the colonial era buildings complete with railings and balconies even in the main shopping street.
After recharging our batteries back in the hotel, we head out for an evening in Port Adelaide to see the sunset and try one of the advertised restaurants at the port. This involves a tram ride to the main station and a train trip. Unfortunately, a delay due to clearing up an exploded hand sanitiser bottle in my bag meant we missed our train and we got to the station just to see it pulling away. We are certainly getting value from our visitors pass and it was only a 20 minute wait for the next train.
We arrived at the port just as the sun was setting and the waterfront was almost devoid of tourists as all the museums had long been closed. We busied ourselves with a few shots of the boats and lighthouse in the fading light. One last walk around the block brings us to a clipper shown on Google maps. It turns out to be called The City of Adelaide dating back to 1864 and it made 23 return journeys between the UK and Adelaide before being used as an infirmary ship and then laid up in the UK for the next 100 odd years before being bought by a charity to be transported back to Australia and restored. After retiring for a beer Dave does scoot out for one last photo as the lighthouse is lit up and the sky crimson and dark blue.
All in all, we are beginning to get back into our preferred travelling mode of following our noses, taking pictures and walking more steps than we intended. We returned to town by train for the next stage of our travel modus operandi of sorting photos and writing words for the blog. Yep, it is going to be a good three months.