Finally Civilisation!!

Adelaide here we come, finally some civilization after all that bush camping.  Adelaide caravan park is very cosy if you get my drift but it's only 2 kms from the city and has a bike track which runs right next to the Torrens River all the way to the city. After settling in we take our bikes for a recon around town and one of the first places we come to is The National Wine Centre.

The National Wine Centre has the biggest wine cellar I've ever seen plus a new invention that is a self service, automatic wine tasting system where no air can get into the bottle. Pretty cool!
Unfortunately we had just finished lunch and didn't feel like drinking. I know hard to believe eh?

Don't ask me what this is but it's in the middle of the city and we thought it looked pretty interesting, just like a bunch of whale bones in a park. 

Beneath is the old Fruit and Produce Markets which although they have kept this beautiful facade, is the entry to inner city apartments. The architecture is just beautiful. Everywhere we ride be it in the city or residential streets we keep ohhing and ahhing at these beautiful buildings. 

Yep that's Smally on his bike 

spoiling my picture of St Paul's Cathedral!

Next day off to Adelaide Zoo. Fantastic, the animals are living in beautiful gardens surrounded by moats instead of cages like the bad old days. Best of all we got to see Wang Wang the Giant Panda!

 

And his girlfriend. ( I can't remember her name)

They are so cute! Adelaide Zoo pays the Chinese Government $1 million a year to have these pair and we are allowed to have them for ten years. Do you think we charge them for our Koalas or Kangaroos? The answer is NO! The Chinese Govt is so good at Capitalism.

Enough of  a whinge now some more pics of these beautiful animals living in surroundings more like a botanical garden than a zoo.

This is where the monkeys live, you can see two on the bottom left hand side. 

How cute are Meerkats?

Here's looking at you!

We also visited The Migrant Museum and The Asylum for the Destitute which was both eye opening and very sad, especially the way children of single mothers were treated back in the late 1800's.

That night we celebrated my March birthday by going to a modern Japanese restaurant enjoying a 6 course degustation dinner. Fantastic!!

Next day off to The Central Market which is very similar to Vic Markets in Melbourne. Naturally we replenished our dwindling food stock..

The other exciting thing that happened in Adelaide is that we met some wonderful people Dave and Jo who had their caravan next to us. We really hit it off and had a great night together, I think we have made some life long friends. Best of all they own a pub on the Yorke Peninsular and guess where our next stop is???