Adelaide 15 – 18 March 2007

Explored other areas of Adelaide on Friday including the coastal suburbs. Spent more time in North Adelaide’s main street and drove around the streets admiring the well preserved houses laid out in beautiful leafy gardens. Liz invited us to tea again and we enjoyed another friendly encounter before an evening out.
The annual open house for Government House coincided with our visit and we had a relaxed Saturday morning wandering around Government House gardens watching performers and having tea and donuts! We toured the house with a small crowd of visitors in unrushed manner. The house surprised us as it didn’t reflect the historical nature of the residence as we expected. For many years all Governors were from England and they brought their own furnishings and redecorated. Over time this has created a bland version of history so now it looks like a boutique hotel. We still enjoyed the tour and the personal memorabilia of the current governor. We hadn’t realised that the Governor was Marjorie Jackson (Nelson) who was a gold medal runner. So of course there was plenty of Olympic memorabilia! Marjory was there greeting everyone in a very friendly and homely manner - little wonder everyone was full of praise for her style!
Continued to explore the city and were disappointed that we were unable to see the interior of the Town Hall. Off to the nearby Central Market which was just winding down with lots of fruit and veg bargains. Left with a bag of sugar bananas and mangoes! Home to rest before a night out at a local Jazz performance.
Sunday another full day – in the morning headed off to Semaphore to Manfest, a festival promoting men’s health. They conducted men’s health checks called Mechanical Checks! Peter passed - just! Score was reduced because he had worn sandals for all the year!
Wayne and Liz met us at the festival and we enjoyed pizza at a balcony restaurant.
In the afternoon, we had a look around Port Adelaide and went to the National Railway Museum to watch a recording of the ABC’s Collectors programme.
The Museum had an expansive collection of state and commonwealth trains and railway paraphernalia and while we aren’t train buffs, we found it fascinating. We were absolutely intrigued with the Provisions Train that crossed the Nullarbor, as it was set out in original condition. It was just like a general store on wheels stopping at all the station sidings and the butcher shop was a gem.
Spent the evening packing our new treasures that were accumulating around our home, under the bed. The conclusion is that we have probably bought enough now!