Back to Adelaide

On reaching Adelaide, our journey was complete. Despite how I would never be able to return to Adelaide on a permanent basis, it is actually quite a nice city. It is large, with over a million people, and has all the cultural capital - major museums, universities and galleries. The centre of the city is quite pretty, with nice old buildings, the River Torrens running along the north edge and a curtain of parklands surrounding it. There is a nice pedestrian mall, Rundle Mall, for shopping. We spent our first day in Adelaide getting re-acquainted with the major landmarks - Beehive Corner (a nice neo-gothic building built in 1895 by John Rundle), the Malls Balls (two silver spheres standing vertically, built in 1977 for Adelaide's centenary) and the Pigs (Horatio, Truffles, Augusta and Oliver). With Christmas just past we saw the Big Santa still on David Jones and nipped in to see the Magic Cave. It had just closed, but we were able to peak through the curtains to see Nipper and Nimble (the horses that boys and girls got to ride). We also drove past Scotties Motel, so that Lydia was able to see one last Big Thing - the Big Scotsman, and Lina was successful in her shoe shopping.

We spent the afternoon catching up with my family. I found out that my brother had earned a commendation as an ambulance officer for professionalism, by calming treating the man who had just assulted him and broken his nose. I met my newest niece for the first time, and saw the rest of the gaggle for the first time in two years. We had a family dinner out, which the kids wildly enjoyed, where Lydia met everyone for essentially the first time. And we bought a telescope with some present money, so that Lydia will be able to see her star.