Adelaide, Australia

I am sitting on the bed with the computer while the ship is bouncing around in lumpy seas.  We are in the area called the Great Australian Bight.  I do not like being in our room when the conditions warrant grab bars by the bed.  All things that roll need to be contained, and cabinet doors secured less they squeak and sway all night. And going to the bathroom takes some adjustment:  men sit, and women have to pull pants up/down with one hand while holding on with the other.   At least I have my sea legs back.  Anyhow, I will try to maintain some semblance of sanity as I write this blog.

 

It has been a very interesting few days in that we have had three world cruisers we know leave the ship for medical reasons.  This is a very sad occurrence, and I wish our friends get well.  There have been some unexpected personnel changes, and all kinds of rumors fly about the circumstances.  There are no secrets on this ship.  Our bridge players have been putting some pressure on the powers that be regarding the overall bridge program and they are requesting that the Walkers return for next year.  It is very flattering that our players feel so strongly about the good program that we have provided for them.

 

Day 1

 

On to Adelaide.  I was expecting a one-horse town and was greatly surprised to find the fifth largest city in Australia to be quite large and modern.  The population in the metro area is 1.2 million.  Australia has a total population of around 23 million.  The ship is docked in the old port area, called Port Adelaide.  There are old historic wool warehouse buildings here, and there is an air of gentrification going on.  We arrived in Adelaide to nice, cool temperatures.  This part of Australia has a Mediterranean climate, and we were lucky to arrive after the heat wave that had temps around 112 degrees. There has been a 5 year drought, but they had almost 5 inches of rain in two days last week.   Adelaide was settled in 1839 by Germans who were fleeing Lutheran discrimination at home.  Many names are Germanic and there are a lot of Lutheran churches, especially in the country side.  In the city, you will find Catholic and Anglican churches.  The Australian wave is very popular:  this is done to shoo flies away from your face. 

 

I escorted a half-day city tour.  This was a great tour because we got to see the entire city from the comfort of our bus.  My knees were thankful for this.  Older parts of the city look like New Orleans.  Ships from overseas used wrought iron, galvanized iron, tiles and bricks for ballast, so many of the older buildings have wrought iron balconies and galvanized iron or tile roofs.  We saw tree lined streets with many original historic brick cottages. 

The center of town is Victoria Square, where one will find an incredible central market stuffed with high quality fruit, vegetables and meats.  There is also a Chinese barber here; Michael knows this first hand as he got a haircut here. 

 

There are more restaurants of all types here per capita than anywhere else in the world.  The weather is conducive to dining al fresco a good portion of the year.  There is also an incredible amount of construction going on.  In fact, they are building a modern hospital from the ground up that is going to cost $2.1 billion.  Downtown is quite vibrant.  There is parkland surrounding the city.  The economy seems to be going well according to our guide. Unemployment is around 5.8%.  They have a minimum wage at around $18 per hour, so that everyone will have a livable wage.  However, there is always a fly in the ointment:  the cost of everything is very expensive.  There is no tipping, all taxes and GST are included in the price of an item, and there are no pennies (all prices are rounded to the nearest five cents).  They city is neat and clean, and has been voted the most livable city in Australia.

We drove into the mountains to the Mt. Lofty lookout to have a view of the entire city from about 2,500 feet.  It was unexpectedly chilly here.  At the coffee shop, a small hot chocolate was $4 and a cookie – one cookie – cost $4!  I told ya it was expensive here.  We drove back into the city and saw many of the 700 venues for the city’s Fringe Festival, which is a very BIG happening.  There is a lot of entertainment and from what I could gather, some strange and funky going ons.   

 

The only bad part of the excursion was backtracking through city streets, hitting every red light in order to drop 6 people off downtown, causing 28 people to get grouchy and angry.  There was no lunch or food on the trip (except at the Mt. Lofty café and on your own dime), so of course people were worried about missing their lunch. 

 

Upon returning to the ship, I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on paperwork (wink, wink – the blog) while waiting for Michael to return from his tour.

               

MICHAEL 

I was tasked today to escort an excursion to the beautiful Barossa Valley. Within a one-hour’s drive from Adelaide are some of Australia’s best wineries, including Seppeltsfield, Jacob’s Creek, Yaldara, Orlando and Penfold. Unfortunately, our tour went to only one of those, along with two other less prestigious venues.  More on that later.

 

The, drive to Barossa was beautiful, and on the way we learned a little about Adelaide and the rest of Southern Australia.  I should mention it was a gorgeous day and wonderfully cool.  It got to 77 degrees today, down from 115 just last week!  Adelaide in Australia’s fifth largest city (1.2 million) behind Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane. Our first stop was “Whispering Wall.”  What is that you ask?  It is actually a dam build about 70 years ago; a typical arched structure about 150 yards long.  What makes it unique is that you can stand at one end and talk with a person standing at the other end, by merely whispering.  I thought this was (wait for it) Dam Impressive!  We also got to stop briefly at the Pioneer Memorial and vista where we saw a lot of stone structures built in honor of the original settlers.

The Valley itself is home to 350 wine growers and 170 wineries, some complete with beautiful Chateaus. Bordeaux it’s not, but attractive none the less.  Our first stop was Saltram Wineries where we got to stand around and drink supermarket wine; it was very disappointing.  We next headed to McGuigan Wineries where we got to stand around and drink super market wine.  It was equally disappointing.  We did have an OK lunch here.  I was really looking forward to our third and final stop at Jacob’s Creek, but alas we were to stand around and drink super market wine here as well.  As you can imagine, when I returned to the ship I shared this experience with the Destination Services staff in the hope they might be able to fix the excursion before tomorrow, when it was to be repeated.  As it turns out, Beverly got to escort that tour so I will leave it to her to explain if they fixed it or not.

DAY 2

I got a wine tour.  Me, of all people.  I can tell a bad wine from a good one, but I really don’t give a fiddlers fart about wine (or opera for that matter).  What I got to see was the famous Barossa Valley, whose culture and atmosphere is derived from the mid-19^th century German influence.  And I got up at 6:30am to do this. 

 

Barossa is the wine capital of Australia, and 25% of all wine produced in Australia is produced here.  Sixty percent of this total is exported to China, the US and France.  It was a 90 minute ride out to the valley and all I saw were brown fields that had been harvested.  They call these rolling hills paddocks.  We arrived at the first winery a bit early.  This was the Seppeltsfield Winery, which was established in 1851.  

It was originally going to be a tobacco farm, but they found out that they could not grow tobacco in this soil.  I have no idea how they could determine that they could grow wine instead, but grow they did.  The family prospered and built a house, dining hall for the workers, a three story cellar, a church and numerous other structures to process the wine.  We had a tour of the estate and wow, what a neat place.  There were palm trees planted along the roadside, along every walkway, and even along the path to the family mausoleum.  The Seppelt family was so generous, that during the depression in the 1920s, they had the workers plant the palm trees just so they could keep them working. Mrs. S cooked for 150 workers and had 20 pregnancies, gave birth 16 times, and had 13 children that survived.  And you think you are busy?!  

After touring the wine cellar, we headed to the tasting room.  This is now 10:30am and I did taste the ports, and promptly started to feel a little schnockered.  I cannot hold any liquor.  It doesn’t look good if the escort is tipsy, so I was glad for a few crackers to soak up the alcohol.  This was a wonderful tour and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Our next stop was to the Jacobs Creek Winery, where Michael went yesterday and was disappointed.  I walked into the visitor center, and there I see a large chalkboard sign that said FREE WIFI.  Forget the wine talk, I was now connected.  The lady giving the tour went blah blah blah, and as the escort I was watching the time.  So I rounded up the group and headed into the wine tasting private room where there were about 8 bottles set up for tasting and platters of cheeses, crackers, fruit and almonds.  I went for the food as I cannot hold my liquor or wine.  I tasted a few, but didn’t really like any of the wines.  Michael said these wines were much better than the stuff they were served yesterday. The cheeses (which are made in the area) were wonderful.  Why didn’t we have a cheese tasting instead?  The almonds and figs were to die for.  These are also locally grown.  Mindful of the time, I encouraged the guide to get the show on the road. 

 

We were rewarded with a quick photo stop at a lookout up over the Barossa Valley. 

It was back to the ship for lunch and an afternoon spent at the pool.