Our second day in Adelaide began with an early morning walk along the River Torrens. We were up and out the door before 6.30am, I was eager to start the day on a healthy note as I knew it was going to end up being pretty indulgent by the end of it. It is all about balance (and easing guilt ;-)).
We headed past Rundle Mall, and over to the Elder Park Rotunda, which was erected in 1882 – making it 101 years older than me!
I was quite taken by the ‘paper boat’ sculptures appearing to float in the river. I’ve since discovered they are an installation by local artist Shaun Kirby, titled ‘Talking Our Way Home’. The five glass and steel origami style boats are representative of Kirby’s mid-sixties immigration to Australia as a ‘ten pound Pom’. An excerpt from this article about the boats provides:
Dispossession is one aspect of this dialectic: another is migration. The floating boats touch on the experience of moving from one geographical and cultural zone to another and for the artist “of being out of your depth, between places… not really grounded here, but no longer in England”. The fragility of glass points to the fragility of self in this whole process. The folded boats carry text too, printed and fired onto the glass surface: the text is from settlers’ and migrants’ journals and diaries.
We continued on our walk picking up the path alongside Torrens River, which is also know by its native Kaurna name ‘Karrawirra Parri’, meaning redgum forest.
What a glorious time to be out for a stroll! So nice to enjoy the fresh morning air before the heat sets in and the morning light gleaming on the water. We saw a few other people out as well, walking dogs or riding bikes.
After crossing the river and walking back on the other side, we crossed again and retraced our steps to the hotel with time to stop briefly at Cafe 55 for brekkie.
Our big adventure for the day was a tour of the Barossa Valley vineyards! I compared a couple of options online and booked a full day tour with the Taste of the Barossa company. It is consistently rated highly on Trip Advisor with excellent testimonials – I have to agree, we had a wonderful time so I will join the hordes of people who highly recommend them.
We booked online, and had two friendly phone calls the day before, once to confirm our pick-up location and second to slightly change our pick-up time due to other pick-ups being made. We were ready and waiting around the corner from our hotel when a mini-bus pulled up and our very friendly driver/tour guide gave a big wave and hello from the window. We hopped in and off we went. Our guide had really positive energy and a great sense of humour. He provided lots of anecdotes and history for the first 30 minutes or so as we headed out of the city. Then he turned up the music and let us enjoy the view out the window for awhile which I appreciated – sometimes it’s nice to be left to soak up your surroundings.
Our first stop was Murray Street Vineyard, which was a great start as the picturesque stone building and rolling green vineyards were absolutely dazzling under the brilliant blue sky and sunshine. We had about 15 minutes to wander around the garden and sit on bean bag chairs to enjoy the sweeping views. Then we were led inside to a large tasting room with wine barrels lining the walls and a long table to all sit together at.
We listened as our glasses were filled and we were told the history of the vineyard, which is relatively young having only opened in 2004. Owner and chief winemaker Andrew Seppelt is a 6th generation Barossa wine maker who has worked in wine regions around the world though, his wines are heralded as bridging ‘old’ and ‘new’. The wines we tasted were really lovely, as was the lady who led us through our tasting. After some purchases were made we hopped back in the mini-bus to continue our tour.
Over the course of the day we went on to visit Peter Lehmann, Hermera (formerly Ross Estate) and Chateau Yaldara. All were very enjoyable with a good range of wines and friendly, informative sommeliers.
We stopped at Menglers Hill Lookout where there is the Barossa Sculpture Park, which was a great opportunity for some photos and a wander in the sunshine. The original 9 marble and granite sculptures were created by artists hosted by local residents for the park’s opening in 1988. For the 20th anniversary another 8 sculptures were made and installed.
By the time we stopped for lunch at Peter Lehmann I was pretty hungry after all the wine sipping. We were presented with the most delicious lunch platters, fresh breads and cheeses and antipasti. The platters were shared between two, with ample food for all. As a vegetarian I was provided my own mini-platter for one, and it was such a generous spread I couldn’t eat it all. I wish I had taken a photo but I must have been too hungry!
Hermera Estate, formerly Ross Estate, was a very entertaining stop thanks to the cheery personality of the woman who showed us around. They were so busy that they were at capacity in their usual tasting area so she set us up in their warehouse section complete with wine glasses balanced on a pallet of cardboard boxes!
We did enjoy a wander throughout the storage areas, the smell of the wine where the barrels were stored was intoxicating (pun intended!) Like being inside a red wine bottle, really heady and earthy. Delicious!
Chateau Yaldarra was our last vineyard so at this point I was starting to decline some of the tasting (hot day + red wine = feeling it!) but I did find room for a couple – I loved the 20 year old tawny especially. The chateau building and grounds themselves are pretty special as well, though we did not really have time to spend looking around.
We stopped at Tanunda town for a stroll on our way back to Adelaide, there was not a lot happening there but it was good to stretch the legs, walk off some of the wine, and look in the old lolly shop and gift stores.
It was such a big day, once we got dropped off we went back to the hotel and had a rest for awhile. By the time we felt hungry again it was somewhat late-ish. We remembered on our walk that morning we had walked past Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Italian restaurant. We have previously attempted to go to the Sydney restaurant a couple of times but never made it as we’re too last minute to make a booking. Given how quiet we were finding Adelaide we decided to give it a try – it was busy but we were able to get a table straight away. Despite the earlier indulgences our appetites came roaring back – the black truffle risotto and raspberry pavlova was delicious, yum! :-)
A special end to a fabulous second day in Adelaide!
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