Friday 14 December 2012

Welcome to sunny Adelaide

Well it would be nice if it wasn't pouring with rain. We got up this morning to find it very wet indeed. Even the locals were out with umbrellas.
Generally it felt just like Cornwall, it was even a bit chilly when we eventually got out.
I say eventually because we had a lay in this morning after three nights of getting up at 6.00 am, we then put our washing into the hotel launderette and thus had to wait for an hour. Half an hour for the wash and thirty minutes for the dryer.
The motel also left us a note on our windscreen, I thought I had parked in the wrong place but no they had left me a note to tell me that they had cleaned the windscreen so that I could drive more safely, what a wonderful thing for them to do. Another first for us.
And now to the question of cloudy beer. When we staying at Madurah we ordered two beers made by a Mr Cooper. Imagine our surprise when we watched  the the barman take them out of the fridge and turn them over , top to base several times. When I asked him why he was doing this his reply was that he had to shake up the sediment. Apparently this made sure the beer remained bitter all the way through. Now, I have drunk beer for a long time and I have sent several cloudy pints back in my time, but here we were being assured that cloudy beer was perfectly fine.
The beer was good but I have to say I would not have drunk it in Cornwall.
In Adelaide today, we went to a bar where eventually we were served a beer,from Mildura, which was similarly cloudy, but which tasted fine.
On our return to Glenelg we walked to a bar on the beach and again were served a beer that was definitely cloudy. Obviously this is a cultural difference between Australia and the UK and one that we might well be forced to get used to. The question therefore is, when is it right to send back a pint of beer in Australia?
The highlight of today was a ride from Glenelg to the centre of Adelaide on the tram. Again we displayed complete naively, we boarded the tram to find we had to use a machine to buy tickets. Our first discovery was that we had no change and we had to ask other passengers if they could change a $5 bill. Eventually a couple clubbed together their loose change to help us out. Then we discovered that there were four options regarding ticket purchase, so we had to waylay another passenger and ask for help. She patiently explained to us that we needed a three dollar fare as we were now in the off peak period, and told us that if we came back after 4 pm we would have to pay the €4.90 fare. We were very grateful. Sometimes being stupid is entirely the right position to take.
We both enjoyed the city centre of Adelaide and when the rain stopped we left the shopping centre and walked around Victoria Square admiring the huge Christmas tree there. Both of us are sure this is a city we need to spend a couple of more days in.

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