A Taste of Adelaide

We wake up pre-sunrise on Saturday morning - and within a few hours we're here on the map in a place called Hahndorf, south east of Adelaide (South Australia). But we have to get there yet, so let's go back a step.

The alarm goes off and I feel like I've slept minutes - there's some light in the eastern sky so I know it's been perhaps a few hours instead. We collect the prepacked cabin-only bags, pat Norten goodbye and head to the airport. We're given exit row seats without asking and breakfast at the Qantas club has me going back for seconds. The basic theme of the weekend has been clinched - travelling and eating.

It's misty and rainy in Hahndorf as we arrive in our RentaYaris. Half the stores still aren't open, and of the ones that are, half seem to have opened last century and still have the same stock, while the rest have prepared for the drizzly weather with copious amounts of chocolate, cheese, pastries, and home made (yet professionally bottled) jams and relishes... just ready to be sampled.

This is wine country - and with various food stocks already, we explore the landscape for things more fluid...

... and find boundless varieties.

Working up an appetite we stumble on Cafe Lime, which turns out to be an extraordinary find, and a very gourmet meal with drinks is had by us both with change from $35. We feel like we've ripped them off, but they're all smiles as we head back to Adelaide city to catch up with friends.

Encountering a school of baby cars on the way...

Of course, I'm competely exhausted after all this (or was it the sleep deprivation I'm experiencing?) and we check into our hotel and crash for an hour or two. Waking up we head to the roof top pool which is about 20m shorter than it looks in the photos, and after 20 or 30 laps I'm really spinning.

The evening finds us walking to our dinner hosts' home tucked away in the city's north. We'd not been there before, but google maps does the trick and their dogs and grand kids rush to greet us at the gate as we arrive. Instantly we're at home, and what a grand home it is - with exquisite art work that we demand a tour of and find incredible fondness of from all involved in the tour. Dinner has been forgotten at this point, because the conversation and connection is just too much fun, but when we do get back to the dining room - I find truly one of the best meals I've ever had. The main of Salmon with lemon butter sauce and accompaniments is just divine... But I won't go all foodie on you - just think mouthwatering and delicious, and made lovingly by our hosts with whom we chat (with other family present all equally warm and engaging) until it's way past everyone's bedtime. If you can imagine the dinner party in "6 Degrees of Separation" the movie, then you have an idea of the evening. I had a camera in my pocket - but decided this event was beyond pictures.

Sunday we wake late but go to the cafe owned by the son and daughter-in-law we met the previous evening, for a delicious brunch (I told you it was a food weekend) at their Queen St Cafe. It feels kind of Melbourne, and we're very at home there.

Eventually we leave and head to the coast to explore it to the south. It's windy and cool though - so the life savers impress us as they paddle into the surf. We keep warm, and head to McLaren Vale...

whose rolling hills are saturated in grape vines...

...and, loaded with the region's produce, we head back home for the working week.