Adelaide - Austin's Sister City

I awoke this morning to a beautiful view of the sun rising over Austin's Sister City - Adelaide. My goal today was to find out about this long-distance relationship we have. Fortunately, we didn't leave the Hyatt until 9am so I started researching the topic and found lots of info.

"Adelaide is surrounded by hills and enjoys a Mediterranean climate and ranks as one of Australia's most attractive cities..." Another major connection is that both cities are centers for the visual and performing arts and have a love of sports. Adelaide groups have visited Austin to study the high-tech industry and various Adelaide musicians have performed in Austin. The major connection I think is the fact that both cities have a very laid-back environment. A perfect example was dinner last night which was at the Good Life Mordern Organic Pizza Restaurant. Great fun and delicious pizza -- exactly what I would expect in Austin.

A special treat for us today was going to an Australian Rules Football game. One of Australia's most popular sports, the game is a combination of soccer and our football. Before we got to the stadium, our host, Southern World Australia, gave us the traditional scarves, gold, red and blude to wear to the game. The ball is like our football, but the rules are definitely different. From my limited observations, it appeared that the ball is advanced toward the goal by kicking, bouncing and throwing. This was an important game and the stadium was sold out as the Adelaide Crows were playing the reigning champions, the Hawthorn Hawks from Melbourne. Their fans wore gold and brown scarves which I didn't think were nearly as attractive as ours. With our support the underdog Crows triumphed over the Hawks. The photo is of me as we entered the stadium. Naturally, food accomnied the event, and we enjoyed delicious Aussie meat pies.

Backing up a bit, we started the day with breakfast on The Ghan, one of Australia's famous trains that travels from Darwin in the very north to Adelaide on the southern coast. Besides a delcious breakfast in the Queen of Adelaide car, we got to view the other parts of the train including the Prince of Wales car. Included on my "Bucket List" is a trip on The Ghan.

After the game we boarded a small charter plane to fly to nearby Kangaroo Island. The island isn't on the map you can see, but it is just south of Adelaide and is the 3rd largest island in Australia. We are spending the next 2 nights at the Southern Ocean Lodge and it is fabulous but more about that tomorrow. The photo of me was taken on the coast of Kangaroo Island.

From Kangaroo Island...

Linda