March 27, 2026

ADELAIDE the capital of South Australia is known as the "City of Churches " and is a hub for festivals, food and wine, situated  between the Gulf of St. Vincent and the Mount Lofty Ranges. It was founded in 1836 and named for Queen Adelaide.  They used excellent city master planning, that still holds today, and makes it so welcoming. The City is completely surrounded by protected park lands and contains four large parks within it's boundaries. The City streets form a perfect grid, running from the mountains to the sea and extend out through the park lands, to allow easy flow inand out of the suburbs. 


Above is the view of the City of Adelaide and the surrounding park lands from atop Mount Lofty Summit.

We wanted to cover a lot of the out lying areas around Adelaide today, so we signed up for a Viator tour for the best of South Australia. Surprisingly we were the only ones from the Ship on the tour and it was nice to spend the day with 2 other couples, who were Australians from other States, here on vacation exploring. Our guide Peter was super knowledgable and chatty. The tour loop took about 4 hours driving time, but it was spaced out over 9 hours, with plenty of time at 4 different stops to explore. Our first stop was at the summit of Mount Lofty, where there is a historic obelisk or column erected to celebrate Matthew Flinders discovery of the summit.

By Pat Patrick March 27, 2026
The quaint german village of Hahndorf in the hills outside Adelaide is charming. Back in the 1830's Lutheran families were being pursecuted in Germany, by Catholics, so a wealthy Minister in Australia reached out to them and paid the passage for a family, that had specific trade expertise to move over. He gave them a piece of land to cultivate and after 15 years of service, it was there's to own. Thus the area of Hahndorf and serveral other villages were established.
By Pat Patrick March 24, 2026
Today was such a special day, because I got to spend it with a great family I have come to adore! Stacy the ship's spa manager and I became good friends, from our first meeting! We have had so many laughs and long chats over my numerous appointments, I love my spa time! I've been lucky enough to meet her sweet sister Sharon and her boys Dylan and Ryan , when they visited the ship last November and today I got to meet Linley , Sharon's hubby and their Dad, Roland , who is visiting from Mauritius . We got together at their home in the southeast suburbs of Melbourne, for a special feast to celebrate Linley's Birthday and this mini family reunion, since we were in Melbourne.
By Pat Patrick March 23, 2026
Melbourne is great, I'm so glad we got more time here. Bosco planned a fun night of exploring for us! We took the tram into the CBD, and got off at the Yarra River Promenade , just as the sun was setting.