Monday, November 21, 2011

Adelaide we love you!

We love Adelaide....
We were blown into town by a hot northerly wind coming from the desert via Port Augusta.
100km/hr and great fuel economy, dream run.


It is a gorgeous, historical, theological, multicultural, foodicultural, winocultural, lovely, capital city.


Gorgeous jacaranda lined streets and lovely stone bungalows surround our inner city caravan park.


Of course, there are all the beautiful churches dotted around the city...








A food lover's dream....




'Dad, here is all the fish we were supposed to catch'




We drove up to the summit of Mt. Lofty with a thousand road riding cyclists who seem very brave as there is not a lot of space. Cycling seems like a really popular past-time in Adelaide.


Mt. Lofty is a bit like Mt. Cootha in Brisbane. It gives you a good perspective of the city.




700 metres above sea level....


The Mt. Lofty monument...






We then headed out to the Barossa Valley which is dotted with gorgeous towns surrounded by rolling hills covered with grapevines....beautiful!!


It is lovely driving around and noticing some well known names such as Jacob's Creek, Wolf Blass, Seppeltsfield, Peter Lehmann and plenty of others I have never heard of.....




Hahndorf is a lovely 'German' type village in the Adelaide Hills. We had the best chunky steak pies here we have ever tasted....prize winners apparently...


I imagine this place is like Oktoberfest every Saturday night.....




The kids really wanted to visit the 'largest Rocking Horse in the world' attraction which is in a little township called Gumeracha. It is also a factory where they produce hand made wooden toys (as well as selling cheap imports).


Something to tick off the 'Bucket List'. Never to return again (ha).


Frank and Ella on the middle level...




Ella and James on the very top...




To end the day we visited Maggie Beer's Farm shop and had a good look around.


 Maggie is obviously very commercial these days selling her products in Woolies and Coles. It was nice to visit and see where it all started on their pheasant farm and original restaurant.





We enjoyed some of her wine and a couple of her 'picnic platters' whilst instructing the kids to 'go for a walk, stay safe and play quietly'. Mum and Dad are in 'Time out'!


Here is the Kitchen where they film 'The Cook and the Chef'.
They do a cooking demonstration here at 2pm each day (which we sadly missed).




The kids entertained themselves by making houses and tunnels out of some nearby chairs.


As staff walked past I said a few apologies and reassured them that we would fix it all up. One of the staff members just laughed and said 'don't worry a bit, it is great to see children using their imagination!'
How cool, they could cope with serious foodies and then could turn around and appreciate our children 'being children' on the lawn.





We have had to step up the pace of our journey to fit in everything so we feel a bit guilty that we didn't spend enough time in beautiful SA and Adelaide. 


Plenty to see and do next time we are here.....


2 comments:

  1. Oh Maggie Beer, how I love thee. How envious am I. Matthew was born in McClaren Vale, part of Adelaide's great wine region, so I'm hopeful we'll get over there for a visit one day. All that glorious fresh market food would be right up my alley.

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  2. Hello Ella, James and Charlie
    I hope you guys are having a great holiday- it looks like great fun. Enjoy.
    Hope to catch up when you get back
    Love Sophia and Chelsea

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