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.