A Postcard from downunder Part 2 - Ambling in Adelaide

By all accounts, Adelaide was a surprising choice for a mini – break from Perth. It doesn’t seem to be on the list of suggested places to explore – but at less than a 3-hour flight from Perth it proved to be a great location for a 3-night stay. My hotel was well placed in the central business district, the added benefit of streets laid out on a grid system meant that even with my poor sense of direction it was impossible to get lost! 

The Adelaide Tourist Office offers the possibility of being shown around the city by a volunteer Adelaide Greeter – as a solo traveler this was a great way of getting to know the city. Without the guide bringing its history to life I would have had no idea that it was a planned city dating back to 1836, with every detail having been carefully thought of including streets that were designed to wide enough for horses and carts! By the end of my 4-hour tour I knew my way around the main landmarks, had ridden on a tram – been shown a coffee shop by the river, and had lunch at Lucias – the first Pizza bar Adelaide!

The Cathedral

Orientation complete I felt safely equipped to explore further afield on the tram – having read that Glenelg Beach was one of the ‘must see’ sunset spots near Adelaide. Amusingly my plan to get off the tram where the locals did, backfired slightly as the people around me on the tram were tourists – and we all followed each other. The sunset was well worth the trip and absolutely stunning – and I enjoyed it on an almost empty beach. I also learnt that what a palindrome is – and that Glenelg is one!

Glenelg at Sunset

I took in several other sites on my visit including the cathedral, the Oval and the Botanical Gardens. Each location had friendly locals volunteering their time to host tourists – unsurprisingly, chatting to many of them soon led to a Brexit conversation as they were totally bemused as to what is happening in the UK – and I wasn’t able to shed much light!

The Botanical Gardens

Flying back early afternoon left the perfect space for an Early Risers’ breakfast tour of Adelaide Central Market hosted by Aus Food Tours. I had already discovered JamFace by Poh for brunch one morning following up on a great recommendation – Poh was runner up in Australia’s MasterChef and owns a great little café in the market. However with the tour I could look at the market through a different lens - after a lovely breakfast, the tour brought the history of the market to life and included numerous tastings – yoghurt, cheese, nuts, salami, truffle salt – and green ants (!) to name but a few! A great end to 3 nights away … and I felt that I had uncovered some of Adelaide’s hidden charms, with a little help from the locals who were so enthusiastic to welcome visitors and showcase their city.

Adelaide Central Market

A postcard from down under - Part 1

23 hours after leaving Birmingham and I was safely in Perth – and talked myself out of jet-lag by persuading myself that the total flight time was 5 hours or two films longer than the ‘4 nights in China’ trips which I have done frequently for work in recent years! The priority on this trip was always going to be catching up with family – but as it was my first visit to Perth, and only second to Australia (the first being over 20 years ago!), there was plenty of exploring to be done! 

I am in my happy place when I see a stunning sunset – they take me back to when I was 16 on a family holiday to Florida, and I was transfixed by a sky which was ablaze with a oranges, reds and purples – and a local commented ‘isn’t God the most amazing artist?’ So, fish and chips on Cottesloe Beach, watching the sunset and playing on the beach with my nieces was a perfect end to the 1^st day.

Sunset on Cottesloe Beach

The following day included a visit to the Botanical Gardens and the War Memorial – which showcased the Perth skyline – so together, the two days set me up well for the week to come!

Perth Skyline from Kings Park

Over the following days I took the opportunity to explore several of the Perth sites – interwoven with tennis, swimming lessons and a bit of crafting! 

If you visit Perth for the 1^st time, then a free orientation tour offered by the Tourist Board is well worth it. My guide struck the right balance between historical context and useful information - and took us to areas which I would have missed if it was down to me and the guide book. Importantly the best coffee spots were also highlighted! 

Being a Brit in Perth, it felt only right that I went and checked on the bells of St Martin in the Fields, London – now housed in the Bell Tower.  It seems that the bells were too heavy for the church in London and were due to be melted down and re-cast … until they found a home in Perth in exchange for the raw materials for new bells. A very costly project for the Aussies, as they needed to create a A$5.5million home for them – but the result is a pretty impressive building near Barrack Street Jetty.

Travelling away from Perth will generally involve several hours in the car … or a flight. However, just off the coast and 90 mins away lies Rottnest Island – originally discovered by a Dutch explorer, it has also seen part of its life as a prison island. Now all the original settlement buildings have been converted into holiday accommodation. That said, visiting in September I was in the low season – and having landed on a sunny day I had a stunning beach all to myself. 

Geordie Bay - my personal beach!

I had been instructed by my nieces to go Quokka hunting …. that wasn’t difficult – where there was food they appeared. What was more unusual was seeing baby Quokkas. I hadn’t come across a Quokka before – hardly surprising – the smallest member of the wallaby family, they are only found in south west Australia. I prefer to think of them in this way, rather than how they were described by that first Dutch explorer – he described them as ‘a kind of rat as big as a common cat’, and named the island Rottenest (Rat’s nest!). 

Meeting the locals!

Rottnest island is not to be explored on a windy day. I went on a calm day but it was still slightly disconcerted when the crew of the Rotto Express patrolled with sick bags, and I got the impression they would dole them out to anyone they assessed as looking a bit green! 

A stunning skyline arriving back from Rottnest to Elizabeth Quay, Perth

I like to think that I had chosen well on the tourist trail when the next day, the people that I sat by on the Rotto Express were on the same tour, as I explored some of the Vineyards of the Swan Valley and the town of Guilford. Guilford had a ‘colonial’ feel to it – but the highlight was brunch in in the Garden Design Centre and Café – a world away from garden centre cafés in the UK. It was a lovely precursor to my afternoon exploring 3 vineyards. My new travel buddies wanted to know what I was up to the following day – I half expected them to show up at a game of tennis with my brother!

Whilst in Perth there was also the opportunity for a family road trip and a long weekend in the Margaret River region. This is a must see area - in 2019 its has taken the top spot on Lonely Planet's must see places in Asia Pacific. Air BnB didn't disappoint and we had a lovely sea view rental in Dunsborough. 

Margaret River itself is a small town - and if we blinked we might have missed crossing the river! However the wider area is known for its stunning vineyards (we visited House of Cards, Amelia Park and had a beautiful meal at Xanadu Estate) and chocolate factories (Gabriel’s Chocolate was a particular highlight offering numerous samples!) , as well as some stunning coastal scenery at Canal Rocks and Surfers’ Point. From Surfers' Point there was also an unusual sight of the River meeting the Indian Ocean. No trip to Margaret River would be complete without making a little room in the hold luggage home for a bottle of wine, chocolate – and lemon curd! That said I think my nieces were perhaps more taken with the visit to Simmos Ice Creamery - but as their global award winning magic formula is based on an Irish recipe it would have been rude not to! Good food, wine and chocolate combined with some stunning views - I think a return visit might be necessary.

Berlin - in two evenings!

More often than not, travelling with work, leaves very little time for exploring – but the invitation to speak at a conference in Berlin, provided an opportunity to explore a city I had never visited – as long as I took a very efficient approach to sight-seeing during the two evenings!

Fortunately, the conference was taking place very close to Alexanderplatz which is a really central location – although after a 3-hour delay to the flight, I did find myself wondering just how safe it was to be walking from the airport bus stop, through deserted streets, to my hotel around midnight!

After a full day at the conference, it took a bit of self-motivation to get my trainers on, ready to walk. Spurred on by the sunny evening I managed a ‘speed tour’ – taking in several of the ‘must see’ sights -  Berliner Dom (cathedral), Reichstag (German Parliament) and the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). I also went to visit the ‘Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.’ It was a slightly unusual installation of 2711 concrete slabs covering 4.7 acres – if I had stumbled upon it, rather than deliberately found it on a map, I am not sure I would have known what it was. The only drawback to the speedy tour of Berlin, was not finding anywhere decent for food – thankfully conference catering was 5 star!

An evening stroll

The second evening was an opportunity to see things from a different perspective – firstly on a boat trip, which provided some great views, particularly of the cathedral. From the water’s edge I then went up 203 metres (in 40 seconds!) to the top of the TV tower. With a clear evening and bright blue skies, the panoramic view from the top was spectacular.

What a view?!

At the end of another full evening of sightseeing I realised I hadn’t seen the one thing that I was on my ‘must do’ list – the wall …. or at least a bit of it (given that not too much I still there). It was totally worth the sunrise walk before breakfast to the East Side Gallery, where art works are painted on a 1.3km section of the older inner Berlin Wall – the longest section of the wall that has survived. It was a slightly surreal moment having walked through residential areas to get to the wall, standing at a spot which represented so much history, whilst life in the post Wall era, is now thankfully the norm.

A little piece of history