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Adelaide Adventure (5/24/23)

There are six federated states in Australia. Adelaide is the capital city and most populous city of the federated state of South Australia. With a population of almost 1.4 million, it is the 5th largest city in Australia. It is 654 km northwest of Melbourne, where we’ll be doing our housesit. As opposed to many other areas of Australia, which were originally populated by convicts expelled from England, Adelaide was a freely settled city.

There is an incredible Parks Land Hike/Bike Trail that circles the entire downtown area of Adelaide. I ran just a small part of it this morning and hope to run more tomorrow.

Bob and I had a good walkabout today to take advantage of the great weather (as in no rain, which is in the forecast for most of the next few days). We saw a lot and took way too many photos.

We began by walking down Hindley Street, a main shopping street, which ends with the pedestrian only Rundle Mall Street.

Haigh’s Chocolates are made in Adelaide and started there in 1915.
This is the start of the art-filled Rundle Mall Street pedestrian area.
Art on Rundle
Malls, plazas, and arcades were plentiful on both sides of the pedestrian mall.
Another art installment on Rundle.

We checked out the National Wine Centre of Australia, which allowed us to learn more about the Barossa Valley wine region that we’ll be visiting this weekend as well as virtually explore some of the other 65 wine regions in Australia via a virtual reality headset. The wine centre was next to the beautiful Botanic Gardens that were free to explore.

A children’s learning area near the entrance to the Botanical Garden.
Stumbled upon this structure in the gardens.
The Botanical Garden was on the edge of downtown.
This building focused on cacti and succulents, inside and out.
A colorful cactus plant inside the building.
This was our lunch spot.

We then walked along a trail by the River Torrens that runs through town. It is bordered by parts of the University of Adelaide as well as theaters, the convention center, a stadium/concert venue, and casino.

Along the serene river, evidence of the city’s continued growth
The brown building on the left is the convention center.
A pic of the Adelaide Oval, a sports stadium which hosts, among other events, Australian Rules Football.
A closer photo of the Adelaide Convention Centre
and the nicely landscaped lawn.

2 replies on “Adelaide Adventure (5/24/23)”

Loving seeing these posts from Adelaide. I first went there in 1990 to pitch for the South Australia Library supply contract. When we won it I was convinced that it was because, on the day I visited, it rained for the first time in months and they thought I brought good luck!
If you have enough time and are able to do it, I recommend that you take the 50 mile or so trip south to Victor Harbour, where they have a horse drawn tram, pulled by Clydesdale horses, over the causeway to Granite Island. I’ve never made that trip myself but the horses feature in my book and the area looks beautiful.
Whatever you do, enjoy it all!
Cheers, Mary

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Great to hear from you, and very belated congrats on the library contract. 🙂 We are headed there today, although we won’t be able to see much, as it is under construction. I don’t know what the weather has been before we got here, but maybe Bob and I brought rain with us as well since it’s in the forecast quite a bit while we are here. Not sure we’ll be able to get to Victor Harbor, but the horse/tram trip to Granite Island sounds lovely.

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