Day 23: Adelaide cricket, library and SA museum

We had planned on visiting the market today, as well as the museum. But then while looking up the Adelaide Oval for Sunday's bike pickup, we noticed there's a cricket match. It's the Women's National Cricket League, top of the league contest between South Australia (home team) and Queensland. Let's go! 

At the Adelaide Oval stadium. The statue is of a famous Adelaide cricketeer who had a 0.9995 average many years ago.

We show up before the first pitch ("first ball") and ask directions of a bloke walking by. Ben turns out to be the voice announcer for the stadium, so he takes us up to the production studio for a look-see. Excellent! 

Ben in the announcer's booth.

Americans in the booth! 

Behind the scenes at the Oval.

Now it's game time, so we head to the main level. Low attendance so we grab any old seats. The girl on our left turns out to be from California, a student from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, here to study wine tasting (drinks wine, gets college credit). Then the woman on the right chimes in, she's a teacher from Cal Poly in SLO as well, and they don't know each other. Is it only Americans here?!?

SA in red and blue.

We watch a couple overs (whatever those are), mostly clapping for the correct team. Then Ben gives us a shout-out over the PA. When again will we ever get introduced at a 50,000 capacity stadium?

Model of the Oval. 

The California prof tells us to make sure to see the South Australia Library. Also that there is a free 98C bus around the city center. Who knew? Why does the web page for taking the Adelaide bus not mention this? 

(Later on we find that SA won by 5 wickets with 86 balls remaining. Can someone please explain this to me? I thought we were scoring runs here.)

Interesting aloe like tree as we walk along from Oval to museum. 

At the museum we dive into the Aboriginal displays. Oh wow, this is an old school natural history museum where the entire collection seems to be on display. So many shields, spears, clubs, masks, nets, boomerangs, digging sticks and other tools. And they have them for SA Peoples, many other Australian peoples, and each of many Pacific Islanders as well. Really impressive. Also, we hit overload.

Another meteorite from the west desert. 2500kg of iron, about 4.5 billion years old!

Shields.

Bark painting. 

Boomerangs.

Fishing gear. 

Fifty types of native things to eat. 

Papua New Guinea painted shields. 

About 60,000 years ago the sea levels were much lower, turning much of Indonesia and islands north of Australia into two land masses. So much easier to emigrate to Australia from Asia then! 

Double hulled boat.

Modern shields with aboriginal inspired designs. 

Designs etched in mother of pearl shells. 

We grab lunch in the cafe. Yum. Also, nicely air conditioned while it's 90°+ outside. So chilly that we are eager to walk outdoors to the library. A few steps into that walk we start thinking about how nice the air conditioning will be. 

Library entrance.

The library has a nice old reading hall, similar in design to the University Library in Dublin, though not nearly as large. And much smaller than Sydney's massive library reading room. 

The classic old library room. 

I race down the hall to check out the "Thomas Hardy Wine Library." Well, not that Thomas Hardy. And they have most of the wine books I own in this collection, except I have that first edition Etudes sur le Vin by Louis Pasteur. 

Now it's time to bus to the central market. At the bus stop (100 yards close, way better than walking all the way to the library) we only see 98A, not 98C. Hmm. Then the 98C arrives -- on the front sign is says "clockwise." Hmmm. Kathy soon spots a 98A bus going the other way -- indeed it declares itself "anti-clockwise". Cool. 

Central market is bustling, much more dynamic than QVM in Melbourne. Also they are offering discounts as they close up stalls for the day. We buy ingredients for tonight's dinner and head home. 

On the way home we see something that looks like Burger King, but it's not. 

Tomorrow we bike to the beach and back. I hear it will be warm. 

Tomorrow's forecast. Bring water.

Day 22, country 2, city 6: travel day to Adelaide

Today we wake to an early alarm, bolt down a Starbucks Via instant coffee, and book it to the station for a bus to the airport. On the way I grab a coffee and croissant -- QVM pastries were sooo much better! 

Also did you know that SkyBus to MEL Airport has a no food and drink rule? So that very hot coffee and mediocre croissant now have a 9-minute fuse before I have to chuck them in the trash to board the bus? I man up and waste very little, though maybe burn some skin off the roof of my mouth. Ouch!

Easy bus ride, easy check in, easy flight to ADL. Kathy and I get upgraded to exit row seats (extra legroom!). I study the emergency card thinking of the tragic Washington DC plane crash yesterday. There we meet up with Robbin and Dan, then easy Uber ride to our Airbnb.

My view while reading the in-flight safety card.

Adelaide from the air looks dry, kind of like flying into northern California. But that explains the nearby wine regions. Once on the ground we immediately enjoy the best weather in Australia. Clear skies, warm but not hot, sunny with a light breeze. Yeahhh! 

View from the air as we approach. 

Robbin and Dan meet us at the airport and regale is with stories of rain in Cairns and their excellent rainforest hike -- the leeches were numerous but not really very big after all. 

Windfinder for Cairns, about 30 knots of wind approaching. They have a rainy season and it is now! 

Before arriving we had communicated relentlessly with the Airbnb host. She wanted to meet up with us to show us the apt (or something?). But we wanted early check-in. So she arranged for the building manager to meet us. "Just press the Ring doorbell. Or call Josh's number..."

We walk up and voilà, the building's Internet is out, so Ring doesn't (ring, that is). I call Josh. No answer. I leave a message then we go to find lunch. This is approximately how it would have gone without advance comms.  Later we find out that Josh was expecting my call. But when he saw the +1 USA number he immediately thought "spam caller!" and refused the call. (That's kind of how we all are feeling nowadays.) Humorous!

We look for a lunch place. For once there are too many places nearby with 4.0 stars. So I up the filter to 4.5+ stars. Still very many!! Awesome!  We walk a block over to Peel St, a modern Australia eatery. Wow! Some menu! 

Tower of Chicken.

Beet salad. 

Roast lamb. 

We get four awesome dishes and an appetizer. Wow, I could eat here every day! And since it was the very first place we chose, probably there are many other good places too. Foodie delight!

Beehive corner building with a chocolate shop (same brand has been in every Aussie City we've visited, time to sample some?). Some nice architecture here.

After lunch we check in, drop the bags and head for the Immigration Museum. It is very sobering. Many stories of displacement and dispossession around the world ending up in migration to Australia. WWI and WWII atrocities yielding immigration to Australia. 

For instance Lithuania.

Then the trauma of the Stolen Generations. And the whole colonization of Aboriginal land. While there are many stories of hope and new lives in a wonderful land, they come with/after loss.

A plaque for each forced migration. Some we've heard of, many others we are ignorant of. 

Again the map of Aboriginal people. 

The end of the White Australia policy. Or own immigration policy changed in (1965?1985?) to downplay white immigrants and seems part of how white nationalists got all riled up since then. 

Next stop, the arboretum! There is a Chihuli exhibit there, so we'll get a combo view. 

Arboretum has great combination of wildish spaces (palmary, jungle trees), nice shaded areas from the heat, and more formal gardens. Plus indoor garden buildings and water features. Great layout!  

Excellent cactus garden. 

Large tree that looks like a sculpture. 

As big as a tree, but actually an aloe plant. 

Then with the Chihuli pieces artfully placed in the landscape, it's quite the show. Our spirits are revived. 

Lotus plants and a very large Chihuli.

Artwork fits the space. 

Again looks like it could have grown here. 

Like a blue sea creature in a blue and white conservatory. 

Like a blue wave made of many flat sheets of glass. 

Blue globes floating on the pond.

A Chihuli boat. Like a fruit arrangement. 

Almost like they grew there! 

Looks just like one we saw at the Boston Museum Of Fine Arts some years ago.

From here we Uber to the supermarket, but stuff for dinner and cook at home. Well, Robbin and Kathy cook, Dan and I make an emergency run back to the store for soy sauce. Nice to be in the CBD with everything nearby! 

Fun facts - Adelaide Metro is about 1.4M, with Sydney and Melbourne over 5M. So very much the baby sibling city. Time difference really is just 30 minutes! What if every state in the USA had its own time zone based on where the largest city (or state capitol) is? Craziness!! There's a free cricket match at the Adelaide Oval tomorrow. And high temp tomorrow should be about 93°, higher than today which felt quite hot.

Day 21: Queen Victoria Market and Melbourne Museum (country 2, city 5), half way done

Wow, Queen Victoria Market is massive! We started in through the indoor market building, with cheese shops, deli and salami counters, and all types of pickled and prepared foods. Then through the butchers' market with lots of fresh cuts of meat of all persuasions. And then among the fishmongers' stalls with massive local lobster, all sorts of fresh and filleted fish, crustaceans and other sea creatures. 

In the back we wandered the vegetable aisles, maybe a little dazed at this point by the scale and volume of the market. The biggest and best carrots. Massive figs, fresh. Passionfruit, mangoes etc. We had to take a break to get breakfast of superb almond croissant and a flat white before continuing. Way in the back were all sorts of consumer items - a belt shop, multiple hat stalls, pens, silk scarfs, and so on. Like a bazaar but with wide rectilinear aisles and very very clean. 

They have volume!

Beautiful fresh produce.

Hot peppers six to eight inches long. 

With the large Chinese population here, I would have expected more stalls devoted to spices and Chinese ingredients. Maybe we missed that section? But they do have macadamia nuts in bulk.

Amazing. Unfortunately we are flying out tomorrow morning so we have no need to stock the refrigerator. But if we lived here we could visit every day, or at least 2-3 times per week, with the little rolling shopping basket grandparents have used for 50+ years.

Outdoor coffee shop and meal stalls. 

Hefty almond croissant and a coffee. Yum! 

Next we walk back to Melbourne Museum, which we only visited part of a few days ago. 

Wait, the center building is decorated to look like a man's face?!? I did not see that when I was taking the photo, only now as I look back. 

Visit Melbourne.com says: Viewed from a distance, the facade of the building reveals a portrait of influential Aboriginal artist and activist, William Barak (1824–1903).

Again we approach past the Exhibition Hall and its century plants with colorful parrots.

Here's a shot of the birds. So many!

We check out the rainforest exhibit. They have a stick insect that's the size of an adult preying mantis, though with six walking legs. Hard to see it without the sign asking you to look for them. Pretty soon you see a dozen! This photo is just one, I think.

Again multiple references to aboriginal Country and listening to it, living in harmony with it.

The Pasifika exhibit is under construction. Boats are still in their wrappers, but the sails are up. And gorgeous!

Next we revisit the Welcome to Country aboriginal exhibit. We spend more time with stories of the Stolen Generations, 100 years of a cultural annihilation program aimed at "saving" the children through removing them from their families and putting them through English-only residential schools where they learned Western history and culture and were forbidden to use or share their own. The schools only closed in the 1970's, can you believe it. 

Aboriginal artifacts, some 150 years old, some modern.

We learn that 1 in 10 to 1 in 3 children were taken during this time, but no one knows because of poor and lost record keeping. At least there was a whole of government apology in 2008.

Lunch in the museum Cafe -- I get my Vegemite sandwich! Plus some veggie bowls and french fries -- do you want chips with that? 

1950's kitchen items. I like the colors and the labeling. Especially that the largest container is for cakes. Essentially CookieLand.

They have a life size model of the crest with stuffed kangaroo and emu. Weird.

On the way out I stop at a vision zero transportation exhibit in the basement. First item is about wearing high visibility clothing, rather than separating cars from other road users.  Annoyingly it wants to personalize the visit to you, making each guest put their name and identifying info on a magstripe card. I skip that part, only to find that the exhibits won't work when you press the button unless you have the magstripe card. Kathy is waiting so I abandon the exhibit. Argh.

More walking to the tram, tram to Southern Cross station where we successfully buy tomorrow's bus tickets to the airport, and another tram back home. Then a glorious nap!!

Today is the most beautiful day, with lots of sun, neither too hot not too cold, and a light breeze. Sailboats on the bay, everything is beautiful. We really like Melbourne, sleepy as it is (Bill Bryson tells Melbourne vs Sydney jokes).

Now it's time to head out for Chinese dinner. 

Snow crabs.

Giant lobsters, maybe 15" long. We hear squealing from the booth backing up to ours. Waiter is showing the live lobster to the family and the kids have never seen one up close.  Eeeeek!

We have stir fried Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce, dumplings in chili oil, and Peking duck. Delicious!!

Cute things we have learned about Melbourne. 

Sometimes you have to pull all the way to the left to make a right hand turn. You pull into what is called the designated right hook turn bay (at the far left). We figure out that it lets the tram move unimpeded, as well as traffic behind you. Not for the faint of heart. 

Yeah right.

You start here.

The time difference to Adelaide is only thirty minutes. Yes, it is just a wee little time zone! We'll be there tomorrow. 100° temps coming in a couple days.