Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital of South Australia (fourth most populous of the eight states).  It is much more provincial than Sydney.   The buildings seem smaller and older, and the roads seem wider.  We rode into town on the tram -- they have two lines that run out to the beach, so there's one about every 10 minutes.  At 9 a.m. rush hour is over, so it was only $2.25 to go all the way to town.  

Town Hall from the Victoria Square tram platform

Another hot day, so we headed to the Botanical Gardens where we knew we'd find some shade.  

 

dahlias

Amazon water lillies

hibiscus

In one corner of the park was an interesting glass fountain.  

it looks like a wave

the curl

the surfer in the curl!

In addition to the plants, the gardens attract some interesting bird life.  There were more ibis and Noisy Miners (like we saw in Sydney), some crested doves (who wouldn't sit still for a pic), some ducks, and a whole flock of parrots feeding on the berries of one of the trees.

feeding upside down

My ultimate goal was the National Wine Centre of Australia, located next to the Botanical Gardens. Adelaide is surrounded by wine regions -- the Barossa Valley north of here is one of the oldest in Australia.  There's also the Adelaide Hills, Eden Valley and McClaren Vale. 

The Wine Centre sounded like a good place, but it was disappointing.  Only one exhibit was open.  Their short film covered only a few of regions in the other states.

I had been to the Hunter Valley north of Sydney on my last trip and I had been to the Milawa region north of Melbourne on my first, so I knew more than what they presented.  

The Centre is associated with the University of Adelaide, and it appeared that there were at least three seminars or meetings going on throughout the building.  The only thing worth seeing was their wine cellar, which they claim is the largest in all of Australia.  

I did like the wall treatment on the front of their wine bar... a few recycled wine boxes

We will just have to go visit some of the wineries on our own.  

We headed back into town. (Within the Central Business District the trams are free and there are some free buses, so it is easy to get around.)

The Botanical Gardens are out on the tram line that goes past the University and the state art museum, so there were some interesting sights.

doesn't your school have a spaceman in front of it?

not sure if the lawn chairs are part of the art

typical English King statue

We did notice these purple scooters all over town.

Apparently it's like those cities that have free bikes that anyone can ride.  Here it is these electric scooters, with their matching helmets.  

We visited the Adelaide Central Market -- much like the European markets we have visited, under one roof we found all sorts of stalls, restaurants, and even a Chinese Casino.  You could get soup to nuts... so we came home with the fixings for dinner.