AUSTRALIA - DAY NINETEEN - Adelaide Hills / Barossa Valley

Previous Blogs: Day 1 Portland & Honolulu | Day 2 Oahu | Day 3+4 Melbourne | Day 5 Williamstown | Day 6 Launceston | Day 7 Cradle Mountain | Day 8 Road to Hobart | Day 9 Port Arthur | Day 10 Apollo Beach | Day 11 Port Fairy | Day12+13 Southern Ports | Day 14 Kangaroo Island | Day 15 Kangaroo Island | Day 16 Kangaroo Island | Day 17 Adelaide | Day 18 Adelaide | Day 19 Adelaide Hills

Click photos for a larger image...

First stop was Lofty Mountain where you can look out over Adelaide.  Col. William Light, in his original plan of of the city, ensured parklands encircled the city to prevent the demolition of parklands and growth of the city.

There are cyclists EVERYWHERE. Cycling is a BIG THING here. And everyone is dressed to the nines in their matching cycle gear, cycling boots and even wrap around cycling sun glasses.  Or maybe it's because of the Tour Down Under?  Australia's version of the Tour de France.

Adelaide Hills, is, exactly that.  Hills and gorges with crazy curving roads and lots of farms and vineyards.

There are small towns, villages and hamlets that pepper the hills, each with it's own unique feel and flavor. 

The biggest attraction is a town called Hahndorf, which at some stage was probably a quaint German village, but now has become an over commercialized tourist trap.

But it is cute and a nice stop to walk around and stretch out legs.  Wendy insisted on stopping for a  Hefeweizen.

They pour beers in Hahndorf (according to them) European style.  They place the tall beer glasses over the bottle, then turn everything upside down.  Once there is only foam left in the bottle, they vigorously rub the bottle (almost like trying to light a fire with a bowdrill) to get the last bits of beer in your glass.  Never seen that party trick, I must say!!

Hot day.  Cold beer.  Life is good.

Loads of sculptures everywhere in the town

Not quite sure the intention here...

We then headed for Barossa Valley, a place know for its vineyards.

We stopped at a chips shop to pick up some take out lunch and ate it in a small park nearby.

There was a sculpture of a snake on a rock that freaked Wendy out.  She kept throwing rocks at it to make sure it wasn't real.  I wish now I took a video of it.

All of these little villages (and everywhere in Oz) they all have some sort of park with restrooms that extremely clean and very well maintained.

I wish Asia could pick that up!

Then it was just driving through beautiful valleys of vineyard after vineyard.

Wendy's Note:      :P

We have people ask us how we can afford to travel like we do... well, my dears, it requires sacrifice.  We drive 15 year old vehicles.  We don't eat out or drink at bars or restaurants at home.  Luckily we have company uniforms so we don't have to think about dressing ourselves.

This is what we had for dinner last night, and pretty much similar items every night.

Seafood salad on a roll with some Brie cheese on the side with crackers. And yes, that was also our breakfast this morning.

We bought it on special. Good time to shop is in late afternoon when they are marking down the perishables!

Cost of dinner and breakfast: AUS $10, or US$7.50 with enough cheese and crackers left over for another breakfast tomorrow morning.

Wendy's Note: Wine was on the clearance shelf for only US$4.00 a bottle!  YEAH BABY!!!!

And finally...

On the left... clever marketing for this tea and coffee shop.

I guess they get that HBO TV show here too...

I don't care who you are...

This is freakin' funny!!!

Tomorrow...ULURU!!!!!!