Day 53  Adelaide, South Australia

Today we are docked in Adelaide and as we got off the ship there was a band there playing for us.  There were volunteers all over the place asking us if we needed help.  The last time we were here in 2012 the passenger terminal was not completed it was now and they had a few shops inside. 

Since we were on a tour we headed out to the tour bus.  We are doing again Historic Handorf the German town.  The guide we had was very informative.  He moved to Australia from Germany and he told us that his wife was Japanese.  He said she only spoke Japanese to the kids and he only spoke German and they worried that they would not learn English but because of this their kids who are grown speak all three languages fluently!  Talk about Diversity!

This time our guide had the bus driver drive through Adelaide and gave us a quick tour.  It is a really neat city with some beautiful old buildings and we were happy to be able to see some of Adelaide as well.  Our first stop was Mt. Lofty which is high up and you get a panoramic view of Adelaide.  It was cold up there for me and since I have been there before I took one picture and headed for the gift shop.  Bill headed for coffee.  We then continued on to Handorf as this is a long weekend for the Aussies, tomorrow (Monday here Sunday there) is Labour Day so since it was a three day weekend Handorf was extremely busy!  It is a quaint little town with shops, German Restaurants and German Bakeries.  Our guide told us about the Handorf Inn and we headed there but the line was outrageous so we headed to the place we had a meat pie in 2012.  We chose a meat pie again instead of a bratwurst or something else.  After that we split a piece of warm apple strudel.  Our guide came in and told the owner we were here before and he told the other workers we were crazy to come back but it was very good.  Being refueled we started to walk  the town.  Bill had seen a jacket he loved in 12 and did not buy it and was hoping they still had it.  We first went to the cuckoo clock store and I loved a few of them.  I will not buy it unless I get it from being in the Black Forest so that was good.  we headed to the German shop and I saw a great tile  It said “A Cranky German is a Sour Kraut”  loved it and if Bill was German I would have bought it.  We finally got to the leather shop and I bought a belt (black leather) and a crocodile belt and Bill found a better jacket.  We were very happy with our purchases and headed back to the bus a little early.  Everyone was on time and we headed back to the ship.  One of the ship’s doctors was our escort and when we got back to the ship the other doctor (his wife) had just come back from overnight when she escorted the patient off the ship.  Said the patient was doing well so that was good news.  This cruise we are lucky as we have 3 doctors onboard.  As I said there was suppose to be 2 but we got a bonus as one has his wife here who is also a doctor.  It has made it better for all concerned.  We have had 5 people leave the ship already and we aren’t halfway done yet!  Last night Augusto our head waiter made us his special Caesar salad and his famous pasta.  It is penne ala vodka with pancetta!  It was fabulous.  It is also the first time in months that I have had pasta and so worth it.  In case I didn’t say it yet (Im old and confused if I did too bad) I have lost 12 lbs since I boarded the ship!  We skipped dessert and we were heading out of the dining room early as we passed Helen and Allen’s table we said hello and starting talking to them they invited us to join them for coffee.  Bill had I did not.  We were laughing and before we knew it Augusto (Our head waiter)was there as well as Leo (Matre D)  They told Allen and Helen that they could not have us.  He would gladly give them some other people but we were not available he told them he had some Pains in the ---. he would give them.  We all had a good laugh.  Helen and Allen headed to the movies, Bill to the cigar lounge and I headed to the casino.  20 minutes later I headed up to the room and there was Helen and Allen they were not thrilled with the movie!  The other night we had to turn our clocks back 30 minutes.  Tonight we turned them back 90 minutes!  We are getting our day back hour by hour!

We will have two sea days before we get to our next port of all Albany, Australia.

What can I say another great day!

These nice guys serenaded us as we got off the ship

Downtown Adelaide

Parks all over the place in downtown Adelaide

HANDOFF THE GERMAN TOWN

VIEW FROM MT. LOFTY