Day 37 Adelaide, South Australia

Today we were in Adelaide and the surrounding countryside which is on the south coast of Australia. We found a very well designed city. The city center is essentially one mile long and one mile wide. This square mile is completely encircled by parks. As you can imaging this creates a very attractive setting. The main road is King William Street which runs north and south thru the center of town. In this square grid all of the cross streets that intersect with King William Street change names on either side of the main thoroughfare. This is because they symbolically wanted to make the statement that "nothing crosses the King".
The city used to be known as the city of churches because it was settled by religious dissidents from various religions who were prolific church builders. They were proud that their city was not started as a place to hold convicts as were many of the other Australian cities. In fact they considered themselves to be free of the "convict stain".
I was impressed by the activity in the city center as we were visiting on a Saturday. We started our day in Rundel Mall which is a pedestrian shopping area in the north end of town. Being here on Saturday had its benefits since we could see cricket players in the surrounding parks dressed in their snappy white uniforms. We must have seen at least eight different games underway.
We started in the city center this morning and then negotiated a taxi to take us around the surrounding areas. First we were off to Hahndorf which is a antique German village. There we walked thru the shops and ate lunch. The driver then took us to Mt. Lofty where we had spectacular views of the city and the area. Then we sped to the coastal village of Glenelg where we could be along the water. We then followed the shoreline back north until we reached the ship, stopping along the way to snap some photos.
I really feel we were able to get a good feeling for the character of this area.
Adelaide's Lament - We did not have time to visit the Penfolds winery which is headquartered here. We see a lot of their wine in the states. This was the first area in Australia to really get into the wine business in a big way.
Tomorrow a sea day.

Chris - "Ho Ho Ho" We spent a half day today with Santa Claus. Disguising himself as Bernard in the "off season" Santa was our taxi driver. Originally from England he settled in Adelaide in 1968 and used to drive an ambulance. I would have guessed a race car...but he said ambulance. He certainly negotiated the turns with speed and assurance. He had long white hair and beard. I hate to think how old he was as he'd been driving for 68 years...YIKES!!!! We met Santa just past the Rundle Mall area. The Rundle Mall is Adelaide's layered shopping strip which is just over 500 meters long and has around 700 shops. There are about 15 arcades and centers and has unique side streets. The shopping ranged from department stores to specialty boutiques with both international brands sold as well as local brands. The area was complimented with beautiful trees and bronze sculptures, some whimsical. Truly a shoppers paradise! After the city we were off to Hahndorf, the German town Paul mentioned. As you approach Hahndorf you are met with century old cork oak trees that form an archway. It is very pretty and quaint. The town itself was founded by German Lutheran's in 1839. There are a number of very old stone cottages which still have a lot of German influence. We had a German lunch so you KNOW I was happy! On the way to the beach we went through a "typical" town called Stirling. It was settled in 1854 and has some of South Australia's most beautiful gardens. Santa told us that most of the suburbs of Adelaide are very small and have a population of about 1500. We got to the beach and it reminded me a lot of a Florida beach. Very long, flat stretches of beach with a number of piers and jetties. The sand though is VERY fine and white. It really was beautiful There were wide boulevards along some of the towns on the beach which looked to have a mix of funky boutiques, "old salty" pubs and contemporary cafes. The houses resembled that mixture as well. All and all I thought Adelaide was a beautiful green city that I wished I had more time to explore. The Mediterranean climate makes it a very desirable vacation spot.