Adelaide

Sunday 2nd October

We have only 1 day in Adelaide, and part of it had to be spent trying to get 3G connectivity for the iPad. I ran out of allowance on the Vodaphone SIM, and was so unsatisfied with Vodaphone I decided to go with another provider. This was probably a mistake, because I don't seem to have been able to activate the SIM, and it has cost me a very expensive phone call from the hotel because neither the local phone nor the iPhone seemed to be able to call the number. I may have to pay to put the iPad on the wireless network tonight. I can't go back to the shop and complain as it's Sunday and everywhere is shut. And we leave tomorrow morning at 6 a.m.

All that seemed to take quite a bit of the morning, but we were able to have a walk round the botanic gardens, which were very interesting. There are many exotic plants, mostly, as far as we could see, from South America or Africa.

We were quite taken with the Amazonian waterlilies.

And some of the trees we quite spectacular.

We walked back along the main shopping street, where there is quite a bit of public sculpture,

did some lunch shopping and came back to the hotel to make ourselves a sandwich.

After lunch, we enjoyed a walk round the main streets (those we hadn't already seen while shopping) and looked at the many fine old buildings. The South Australia Museum had something in common with a French chateau

While the South Australian Ary Gallery looked not entirely unlike the one in Edinburgh

The big posters are for a Saachi exhibition - they seem to be everywhere!

We went to see a historic house called Ayres House which used to belong to Henry Ayres, a man who arrived in Australia in 1840 as a very humble person, but became very rich, went into politics, became Premier seven times and was eventually knighted by Queen Victoria.

The house was originally built in 1855, but then was much altered and became very grand.

The rooms inside (no photographs allowed) reflected his wealth and status, with hand painted ceilings and stencilled woodwork, chandeliers and gasoliers and lots of late Victorian furniture. The kitchens and servants areas in the basement reminded us of others we had seen. 

That wooden item at the bottom of the picture is a travelling bath! I was far from certain I could fit myself into it to have a bath, and having got in, I doubted I would be able to get out! 

We had an hour long tour of the house, so afterwards we were glad to walk down to the river and have a cup of tea in a cafe there.