We had a flying visit to Adelaide with the express purpose of …. doing absolutely nothing!

I booked an apartment within walking distance of the Adelaide Central Markets which we last visited many years ago, and they are as good as we remembered. We spent a few hours just wandering, drinking coffee and eating the most amazing Portuguese Tarts from Saudade. I think we visited these markets every day!

We also visited The Jam Factory which is actually a shop, studios and workshops promoting craft and design in everyday life. There are educational programmes and courses on offer with studios in Ceramics, Glass, Furniture, and Jewellery and Metal. We spent time browsing the shop and then wandered up the stairs to the viewing platform overlooking the glass studio. We were riveted!

These photos only give a snapshot of the activity, but we followed the progress of this piece of red glass that finished up being the paper weight (I assume) in the right hand photo.

Many years ago we went to Hahndorf and I had very fond memories. I didn’t want to hire a car, so we hopped on a bus and went into the Adelaide Hills to play tourist with all the other tourists.

Hahndorf was populated by German settlers escaping persecution. It still has quite a Germanic feel and is home to many beautiful heritage buildings. We were visiting around Remembrance Day and I did enjoy all the hand made poppies in this display.

My daughter-in-law loves all things Christmas and I thought of her when I went inside. It’s not your usual shop, but is full of German designed Christmas toys and decorations.

We basically strolled up and down admiring the buildings, visiting galleries, and generally enjoying the ambiance.

Hahndorf is a tourist town and it is very touristy. Still well worth a visit though.

It’s been a while since I saw the pigs in Rundle Mall, but I was pleased to revisit them. I also love a good arcade and tis one pleased me, especially as it had a Haig’s Chocolate shop at the end!

We spent time in the museums and art galleries – I’m always interested in what the other states offer. This was an installation by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota at the Art Gallery of South Australia. It is string and represents what it means to be human. It was pretty amazing to walk through.

Our trip coincided with the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year Exhibition at the South Australian Museum.

This photograph rather blew my mind. It’s called ‘The Beast” and was taken by Darren Wassell of Queensland. It was the winner of the Landscape section. That cloud to ground lightning bolt is pretty epic.

This was also an amazing photograph, I managed to cut off the photographer’s name.

The exhibition was open internationally and the photographs taken with a variety of cameras, including smart phones, and by all ages. there were photographs taken by children as young as eight and I think it bodes well for the future of photography, in spite of AI.

The South Australian Museum teamed up with the Adelaide Botanic Gardens so visitors get entry to both the Wildlife Photographer of the Year and the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer exhibitions.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Botanic Gardens was held in the Conservatory which was a rather lovely, if steamy, venue.

We did enjoy the rest of the botanic gardens, they haven’t changed much since our last visit. The sculpture on the right is made from slices of glass, it’s really something.

Adelaide has some really beautiful buildings, both old and new and I did take a lot of potographs, but here is an interesting juxtaposition of the two – not that they are in proximity anywhere but on this page!

On previous visits to Adelaide we have taken a vintage tram to Glenelg which was a wonderful experience. They’ve since been replaced by modern trams but we couldn’t take the tram this time as the tram line is being upgraded, so we took the bus. Definitely not the same, but enjoyable nevertheless. It’s always nice to play on a beach.

We were on the trail of Australia’s best Cornish pasty and it happened to be baked in Glenelg, so we duly bought a couple. They were ok, but since we got home we’ve made our own, with my husband creating the filling and me the pastry. I’d posit that ours are better and I have done a lot of testing over the last week!

We also caught the bus to Port Adelaide, home of an Australian Rules football team with very dedicated followers. I’ve never been before and had no idea what to expect really.

The first thing I spotted when I got off the bus was this wool shop. It was fabulous – in a beautiful historic double fronted shop and full of things to browse.

It was in this shop that I saw an emotional support chicken and wandered about with it under my arm, thinking that I really needed to knit one.

A slight digression, but here is my chicken – knitted from scraps of wool I mostly dyed myself. In fact the body and tail had been a pair of sleeves that I frogged.

Miss G adopted it before it was finished and I’d only stuffed its head. I asked her what we’d call it (thinking Henrietta or other appropriate chicken name), but she’s named it Ruth!

here is Ruth in all her glory, with the only wool not dyed by me being the purple bands and red comb and wattle.

I now have another on the go, using wool I inherited from my mother. It will be a smaller version as I’m using smaller needles.

OK, back to Port of Adelaide! It didn’t seem to be a terribly busy port, if I compare it with Fremantle, which is our port. It looks positively serene here.

However, I did feel some similarities with Fremantle when I looked at the buildings and the hotels.

and some cool street art

All in all, we enjoyed our visit and were glad that we’d made the effort.

We had a most relaxing week, not hurrying to be anywhere or do anything and we came back refreshed. I did regret not taking a proper coat. I was getting around in a ponte cardigan and there were people in puffer jackets, but it warmed up as the week wore on so I stopped complaining eventually.