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Russell writes…
Today we finally got to see Adelaide… twice.
We had an excursion this morning, “Historic Hahndorf.” This five-hour tour first took us on a panoramic bus ride through downtown Adelaide. The town is laid out in an almost perfect rectangular grid. The streets that border the city are called North, South, East and West Terrace. King William Street runs north-south right through the center of town. (In fact, the east-west streets all change names at that point, because “no one crosses the king.”) You know exactly when you have left city limits because you are suddenly in a park.
From there, we drove to Hahndorf. This historic German town was founded in 1839, and we had two hours to walk around. We bought a German sausage and even found durian-flavored ice cream. (Durian is an Asian fruit that smells so much like rotting feet, the vendors have to set it off by itself.)
Gail had been looking forward to visiting Hahndorf… and was pretty much disappointed. She hoped it would be historic and cultural; instead it was commercial and touristy. It was like a Disney version of a German town. We talked to a German couple from the cruise, and they said it bears no resemblance to the town they last visited 20 years ago.
Our next stop was Mount Lofty. At 2,329 feet, it is the highest point around. The area has a 2.5 hour hiking trail. Unfortunately, we were only here for 20 minutes. On the plus side, we got to see a koala up in a tree.
Our original plan was to finish the excursion back at the ship, then turn around and take the train back to Adelaide. Fortunately, the bus driver was willing to drive back through downtown Adelaide the drop us off, saving us several hours of backtracking.
Ever since we came to Australasia, Russell has been scouring board game stores looking for a particular board game, “Heroes of Terrinoth.” (He thinks it would be great for his onboard gaming group.) He was finally able to locate a copy in a game store in Adelaide – that’s why we were so eager to get into town yesterday afternoon. We didn’t make it yesterday, but we made it today. They had one copy and they held it for Russell. Success at last!
For the rest of the afternoon, we walked around through Rundle Mall, a pedestrian area. Gail was happy to see a lot of urban sculptures, as well as a busker (street performer) from New York who performed his heart out.
We returned to Outer Harbor and the ship by taking the 35-minute metro train. By the time we got back to our cabin, Gail was concerned she might be catching a cold. So we stayed in and ordered room service for dinner.
Andy the cruise director announced that “out of an abundance of caution,” the ship is introducing more stringent sanitary measures. (We would love to know who is making a royalty for the phrase “out of an abundance of caution.”) Andy stressed that there is nothing wrong; Regent simply wants to be more careful on all of its ships.
Andy also reiterated that there is no official announcement from Regent yet regarding the next segment of our itinerary. Like everyone back home, we are hearing many changing and contradictory things about various ports around the world. All we can do is stay tuned and hope for the best.
