10 APR Adelaide (Hills)

Today was more leisurely than the past few days.  Although we got up early to catch our flight back to Adelaide, the only thing on the agenda was driving through the Adelaide Hills, wine country, etc.  The flight was not bad, and actually they didn’t even have “security” at KSC.  Of course, we found out why as they bussed us over to a building outside of the secure area in ADL.

We got our rental car and headed up into the Hills.  We had some basic ideas of where to go, but saw a sign that said “Scenic Drive” and took the diversion.  We ended up in Woodside, where we found a cheese factory store (with tasting) and a chocolate factory store (with tasting).  The cheese was nice, but all soft stuff, like brie and goat cheese.  It’s OK, but I prefer the hard or aged stuff.  Nevertheless, we had a cup of coffee and a bottle of Orange Cream soda, and watched their video clips about their process.  The chocolate place was more interesting, but not a lot of things to try.  Also in Woodside, they were building some structures for the Australian Army.  They were actually pretty nice looking masonry structures, which I found ironic, since they were in “Woodside”.

We headed back down the hill to this little town that boasted a winery AND a microbrewery pub.  We thought this sounded like a great place to have lunch, and frankly we were getting hungry.  Well, apparently this is more of a weekend getaway kind of place, because about 4-5 eateries we sought to eat at were closed.

A fair drive up the road and we finally found a place that was open and serving food!!  It was about 1:30 or so, by then.  So, we tried about 5-6 of their wines, and got their special, a pizza and two glasses of wine!  We tried to keep the sample sizes small, but she wasn’t stingy.  I’m sure the samples amounted to at least a full glass.  We bought a bottle of tawny port, as we both really liked that one (unusual, as we often differ on tastes for drinks).  While at the winery, we (well mostly me) made friends with two dogs that were there.

 

SUITE!!

We drove back into town, checked into our hotel, and were a bit surprised when we opened the door…a suite!!  A nice ending to a brief tour of South Australia!  We headed out for a last round of shopping before coming up to the executive lounge for dinner (Theresa’s Diamond status with Hilton just pays and pays!! J).  So, I am writing this with a complimentary beer, and complimentary appetizers.