About 25km south of Adelaide is the town of Hahndorf. Rick had been there 15 years ago, so we took a slight detour. It's pretty much the same touristy town it always was: lots of restaurants and eateries and overpriced retail and crafts shops. The weather was beautiful: sunny and warm,so we took advantage of the opportunity to take a walk. 45 minutes in Hahndorf was plenty for us, and soon we were back on the M1 to Adelaide (South Australia). Our apartment is conveniently located just north of the South Terrace, where the highway ends. Unfortunately we misread the map and wound up in the center of Adelaide. Rick recognized where we were and we found our way to the Castle Apartment without much trouble.

The apartment is just off Halifax on Castle (a one way street). We will not have to worry about finding a space to park on the street as there is a gated car park area at the front. Rory pronounced the bed to be comfortable and the apartment warm enough, so she (we) would be fine. Jason and Sandra own the place. They have a cafe at the front of the building that faces Halifax. Jason was quite helpful, providing us directions to the laundromat, bus stops and the Adelaide Council Library. The latter provides free internet service, and we took advantage of it to check email, our finances, and, of course, Rick's fantasy baseball team. We also borrowed a video. For dinner, we walked to Hutt Street (a couple of blocks east of our apartment), perused the menus of the many restaurants, and selected Alfonso's. Like many restaurants in Australia, at Alfonso's you check out the menu, order at the counter, and your food is brought to your table. This is very efficient because there is no need for a hostess and no need for a waitress to constantly check to see if you're ready to order. They had a table with bottles of water and glasses--also for self-service. (By the way, the water here in Australia is generally quite drinkable--no need to pay for bottled water at dinner.) Remember that there's no tipping in restaurants, so the Aussies don't add any "frilly" services that don't add much value in order to "earn" their tips. They seems to be quite pleased if you just compliment them for their food. What a concept!! We highly recommend Alfonso's to anyone staying in Adelaide (202 Hutt Street, tel: (08) 8223 1547).

Tuesday, April 25th: Today is ANZAC Day--a national holiday in Australia, comparable to our Memorial Day, when the war dead, beginning with those who died at Gallipoli in WW I, are remembered. It's an important day, in fact, one of only three days during the year that the country pretty much shuts down. Most shops and all businesses are closed. The restaurants and bars do stay open. Not realizing it, we'd run into a huge crowd and the ANZAC Day Parade, we decided to take the short drive into the city centre. With nothing really to do in the city, we had the choice of returning to the apartment and doing our laundry or going to Cleland Conservation Park. We chose the latter--wouldn't you? Rick had been to Cleland 15 years earlier. The park is dedicated to native Australian animals: kangaroos, emus, koalas, tasmanian devils, echidnas, wombats, dingos, wallabies, and birds of all sizes, shapes and colors. First thing--get down to the koala area so Rory could hold one of the cuddly critters. She got Abby, a female (they are smaller than the males, but no less fun). We spent the entire day wandering around the Park. Many of the animals roam free in huge fenced areas and visitors wander freely among them. We bought two bags of "roo food" at the entrance, and left with 1 and 1/2. The kangaroos are fed by so many people that they soon lose their appetites and interest in any food they are offered. We had the most fun with a mama wallaby and her joey (baby), four huge white and black pelicans, and an albino kangaroo.

Wednesday, April 26th: Finally, another clear and mild day! We couldn't decide what to do, especially since it was our last day with the car. We decided to drive around town making a visit to the Central Market. We had hoped that it would rival the Victoria Market in Melbourne, but it was primarily a food market. To park in most places in the city centre requires the purchase of a parking ticket for a specified period of time. We tried this a couple of times. We located the Thrifty location where we would return the car and wandered Rundle Mall (a pedestrian shopping street). Having decided against a day trip out of the city, we opted for Glenelg, a beach town south of Adelaide. We caught the free Adelaide shuttle a block from our apartment--destination Victoria Square, where we caught the old tram to Glenelg. Rick had been here before as well and said that much of it looked the same, including a familiar land mark--the "Lamb Spit" ("ptui"-- private joke), a local kebab restaurant. Adjacent to the last tram stop, we ate at Mamma Carmela's. We ordered the vegetarian pizza and both of us agreed it was the best pizza we'd eaten outside the US. We wandered around Glenelg for a while, took the tram back to town and walked back to our apartment. We had laundry to do, and email to check. Once those two tasks were completed, we looked for a Thai place ("Woks Hapn'ning") we'd seen on Sunday night. A note on the menu warned that "the management reserves the right to change prices and everything else without notice". Fortunately, the management had not been too busy prior to our arrival. Everything was as it was listed. They had imported beers from 7 countries (none from the US--why were we not surprised?), and Rick chose Cooper's Dark Ale--every bit as good as Toohey's Old Black; maybe better. The prices were quite reasonable and the food surprisingly good. That's two good places to eat in one day!! Chores done and tummies full, we returned to the apartment to watch a little TV.

Thursday, April 27th: We are greeted by a cloudy, but mild, day. Expectations for rain have been postponed until tonight and we hope it won't affect our flight and two days in Kangaroo Island starting tomorrow. We returned the rental car and spent the day in City Centre. We visited the Tandanya Aboriginal Centre after stopping in a few shops in Rundle Mall. We took the free Adelaide Loop bus to the National Wine Centre (a part of Adelaide University). We did a self tour of the center, learning quite a bit about winemaking. We even got the chance to make our own wine--simulated by computer. We decided on a chardonay and earned a "silver medal" for our efforts. Afterwards we did a tasting, choosing four wines from Voyager Estate winery. We chose these because the winery is in the Margaret River area of Western Australia, where we will be in a couple of weeks. We tried the Sauvignon Blanc Semillon, the Chenin Blanc, a Cabernet Merlot, and a Shiraz. Surprisingly, both of us rated them in the same order: best was the Sauvignon Blanc, then the Shiraz, then the Chenin Blanc and finally, the Cab Merlot. The weather was holding out, so we wandered through the Botanical Gardens, finding a delightful place to eat in the center of the Gardens. We chatted with a quartet of Aussies after offering to take a group photo of them. Following lunch we did a little shopping and returned to the apartment. Jason was in the cafe, so we had a drink and a complementary banana/apple muffin--quite good. Rick went to the library to check email for a note from Vicki and Richard in Fremantle. Vicki had sent a message with instructions to get to the apartment and their contact numbers. We stopped by the cafe at 5:45 to finally meet Sandi. She and Jason suggested we have dinner in Henley Beach, about 15 minutes from the apartment and we readily agreed. They chose the Thai Orchid and we shared several dishes, a nice bottle of Savignon Blanc and a couple of hours of good conversation. They dropped us at the apartment around 10:30 and we quickly got our stuff together for our two-day trip to Kangaroo Island. Fortunately, we can leave most of our things there while we're in KI--a very nice accommodation by Sandi and Jason.

(Friday and Saturday, April 28th and 29th: see Kangaroo Island journal.)