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The taxi ride thru Adelaide to my motel is wonderful. Dotted among the new modern buildings are wonderful old buildings. I promise myself I'll come back to take more pix later. My motel is newly refurbished, with phone, cable TV and air conditioning. The dining room is open for breakfast and dinner, but lunches are room service only. It sits on the south side of a huge park, one of many in Adelaide. My first objective is to get some fiber so I can spin! Yellow pages under the phone yield no nearby yarn, wool or fiber shops. A phone call to a "Wool Broker" reveals the bad news - no place in town to buy fiber or yarn! The nearest place is probably up in Hahndorf, a 15km drive from the city. Hmmm... Ok, I find the brochures for Fun in Adelaide and see that I can take a 1/2 day tour of Hahndorf and surrounds. Yippee! Wool within reach. I get a seat on the bus and arrange for pick up outside my motel. Now for some lunch. This is when I discover that there is no lunch to be had here. I decide that there must be something within a few blocks so I head off across the park to discover a cafe and my first meal in Australia. The lady behind the counter is very helpful, explaining how they make sandwiches in OZ. I get a "double cut" roast beef sandwich on a wholemeal roll with salad. This means the very tall roll is cut into 4 slices and a thin slice of roast beef is put between each pair of bread slices. Butter, mayo or mustard is added to each, then "salad," the lettuce, tomato, pickled beet and cucumber slices and shredded carrot is apportioned among the sandwich parts. A diet Coke and I'm soon in the throes of bliss - it's been a long time since I had that muffin at 3:00a.m. NZ time. I stroll back to the motel, much refreshed and feeling like I may live after all. In the lobby I strike up a conversation with another guest and we take the lift up to our floor. Surprise, she asks me if I would care to join her this evening for dinner. This is a welcome invitation since I have no car and I'm sure I don't want to try walking around looking for a place to have dinner. I accept gratefully and she says she'll pick me up around 7. :) After a lengthy shower I drag out the computer to check my email. Turn on the TV and see what's on the In House movie. Maybe I could take a short nap - I've lost 2-1/2 hours flying westward from NZ to Adelaide and it's been well over 15 hours since I got up in the middle of last night. My new friend Ann arrives on the dot to say she's asked for a taxi and that we will be having dinner at a nearby restaurant she knows of. Ann is from Mt Gambier, "right down at the bottom of South Australia." She's in "personalized wrappers," used for wedding favors and promotional gifts, here to "flog" her line, looking for new business. She and her husband raise Coopworth sheep and she is amazed that not only have I heard of them, but I have spun coopworth fiber. She's thrilled when I tell her my skeins have won many ribbons in various competitions across the US. I have salmon fillet for dinner and Ann has the Porterhouse steak. My fish is not cooked in the middle and her steak is overdone. Seems that's how it's done here in OZ. I carry thru on my plan to try all the different Aussie beers, trying two with dinner. Nothing to write home about, I'm afraid. We talk and talk and don't get home till 10. Another troll for email, hoping to get something from home. Darn that dog - she never writes!! Tuesday morning comes a bit earlier than I like, but breakfast only lasts till 9am here. What a way to run a vacation! After breakfast I call Vera and arrange to visit for a few hours on Wednesday. I watch a movie and then get ready for my trip to buy wool. The driver takes us on a short tour of Adelaide and I learn that the town center was set out to cover only a mile square and that the original buildings from the 1830s are still around and are considered heritage buildings and will be preserved alongside the newer modern ones. This is readily apparent at the University. We head out of town on a 6 lane freeway that is the main route between Melbourne and Adelaide. Soon we turn off onto the old road for a more leisurely scenic trip into the foothills. Our first stop is the Bridgewater Mill in a tiny town of Bridgewater. Next door to the Mill is a winery and we have to taste a few of the good Australian wines. Hahndorf is an old German settlement farther up in the foothills, settled at the same time as Adelaide by Prussian Lutherans seeking to escape religious persecution. Some of the original families still farm here. The main street of Hahndorf is chock full of shops and we park right behind the very shop I expect to find spinning fiber. I hurry in and tell the clerk that I'm desperate for a fix. She has a small selection of fibers, including some nice rovings and some hand-dyed batts. I buy 750 grams of a light grey roving and then give the clerk a short spinning lesson with a paperclip. It would have been easier with a thicker wire, but she got the idea right away. I hurry down the street to "The Alpaca Store" to see if they have any fiber there. What luck! I buy 500 grams of a lovely white huycaya fleece. It's a bit short, but I think I can tease it by hand and spin from handfuls of fluff. Or maybe I will mail it home and drum card it later. |