February 15 – Adelaide, Australia

We had tours scheduled today but first we had to get into Adelaide.  The ship docked at the Port of Adelaide and we had to take a 45+ minute taxi ride to the tour pick up point.  We made it with only about 10 or 15 minutes to spare. 

The morning portion of the tour took us around Adelaide proper.  

There were a number of modern buildings...

but many of the buildings and homes were built during the Victorian period when the town was first being built.  The homes were beautiful…

as were the old churches. 

We stopped at St. Peter’s Cathedral…

and had good views of the Oval, the large cricket stadium in Adelaide, just across the park. 

There was also an interesting (odd) looking building that was called the Cheese Grater.  It is the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute.  Very unusual.

We headed to a nearby food court for lunch and then back to the Central Bus Station to catch our afternoon tour which took us to Mt. Lofty for views of Adelaide.

From there we went to the town of Hahndorf.  This town was founded by German settlers and has some interesting Germanish looking buildings.  However, most of the main drag is now shops, cafes and restaurants catering to the tourists.

On the way back to town we went koala hunting along the way.  And we saw a few but photos were poor. 

We walked from the bus stop through part of town looking for the shuttle back to Crystal.  It took a bit of looking as they had only given us a rough idea of the location.  But we found it and saved on taxi fare back to the ship.

After dinner we went down to listen the Crystal Cove to listen to Irina, the on board violinist that we both love.  This area is the main "plaza" of the ship and has a beautiful colored glass ceiling.

While there we started chatting with another couple.  Turned out he was the archaeologist that had presented a recent lecture.  This was his first time on a cruise ship.  We had a lovely visit.

This evening’s entertainment was Kym Purling, an excellent pianist and entertainer.  Much of his show featured the cruise show band members…and they are all awesome.  Particularly when you know that they learn a new show almost every night.