A well earned rest in Adelaide
Trip Start
Sep 22, 2008
1
33
50
Trip End
Feb 01, 2009
Adelaide,
South Australia,
Australia
Friday, December 5, 2008
Having travelled around 2100kms in just 3 days, it was a very welcome break! Even though the wet weather has followed us since Perth, we made the most of our time.
With a population of 1.5 million in SA, about 1.1 million people live in or around Adelaide. We had no real idea of where to stay, so we randomly picked a van park at Semaphore, near Port Adelaide. Considering we spent a fair amount of time around the city centre, we probably could have stayed a little closer to the action.
A friend's niece who lives in Adelaide was extremely helpful, advising us on what to see and where to go.
We had a really nice day in the picturesque Adelaide Hills. A visit to the Hills in the "Keith does Adelaide" itinerary had to include the National Motor Museum at Birdwood. It offers a comprehensive coverage of Australia's motoring history with some very rare and unique vehicles on display, including some proto-types that never saw production. With Keith now completely content we went on to see a giant rocking horse and the small German village of Hahndorf. A local farmer really got into the Christmas spirit, creating Santa on a tractor using hay bales in one of the paddocks beside the road.
A little further afield was Victor Harbour, another old whaling port.
Victoria Square - Adelaide CBD
The girls took one look at the Clydesdale towing a tram across the causeway linking the mainland with Granite Island and decided they'd walk...Of course, Hollie and Lauren were hanging out to see High School Musical 3, so we took John's niece's advice and ate at a fantastic Italian restaurant on The Parade at Norwood and let the girls see their very first movie without adult supervision (they didn't know that we waited - slightly anxious- virtually outside the cinema door!)
We happened upon a rather lovely Christmas light display on the riverbank in the city on our way home. This was probably our first little taste of the season.
Glenelg, the premier beach side suburb was already buzzing with holiday makers and school kids. It sits on the bay, so once again the beach is wave-free. Jetty Road is vibrant and cosmopolitan; we loved being part of the scene.
Another favourite place for us was Rundle Mall in the city. Although this holiday has not been about shopping, we thought we could soak up a bit more Christmas spirit in DJ's or MYER. The girls saw Santa and we enjoyed watching the buskers do their thing. You could definitely do some serious spending in Adelaide. Apparently Westfield at Marion is the largest shopping complex in the Southern Hemisphere!
A tram links Glenelg with the city and then a free city loop bus offers a hop on - hop off service. The city is laid out in a grid and is very easy to navigate. There were some very beautiful old buildings, including the uni, museum and art gallery. We were impressed with how safe and uncrowded the city felt and enjoyed our time immensely.
We're not sure if Phillipa (our sat nav) was having a bad day, but we took a most unusual route out of the city on our way towards Mt Gambier. In fact, from where we were staying in the city's north-west, she took us right through the middle of the city before linking up with the freeway to head south. It really felt strange towing a caravan through there in peak hour...
