Vacation - Adelaide South Australia

Adelaide street theater takes place whenever there is an arts festival, which is often! In Adelaide street theater is a long founded tradition

Known as the city of Churches, Adelaide was founded in 1836 and named after Queen Adelaide, the consort of King William lV.

Many beautiful churches adorn Adelaide streets and a strong association with the arts as well as a long history of being first in the country to introduce religious and other freedoms.

An annual Arts Festival has been a feature in Adelaide for many years, and attracts all forms of art from all over the country.

The performance arts are to be found in the streets as well as the many venues, which gives Adelaide a carnival feel during it's many festivals.

I worked in Adelaide for several months, commuting to Melbourne weekly and got to know Adelaide while being a Melbournian.

The city is divided by a massive parkland, has wide roads and is a well planned city with the city center designed in grids.

Glenelg is an Adelaide suburb like a separate little resort town on the sea.

You can watch dolphins play from beautiful white sand beaches and see magnificent sunsets.

There are wonderful restaurants and shopping 7 days a week.

Jump on the Glenelg tram from the city and take a look, it is very pretty with a huge promenade along the beach with palm trees all along the area for shade and beauty.

There are several other tourist spots at Glenelg that are outstanding and the whole area has a resort feel to it.

Adelaide has an easy going pace, not like a major city, but more like a big country town.

This is partly because, as the most populated city in a very big state, it caters for a wide and diverse culture which includes mining and agriculture.

The Torrens river runs through Adelaide with the Murray river being only a few kilometers away.

The aboriginal people of the area called the Torrens: Karrawirra Parri.

Arriving by road from Melbourne you enter the Adelaide hills, and can look down to Adelaide below.

Apart from Glenelg, Adelaide has Port Adelaide and the famous Maslin Beach, which is a beautiful ocean beach that is quite long, and a safe place to swim.

The weather in Adelaide is warm to hot and the beaches are a big attraction for locals as well as tourists. It also has a nude section!

The area around Adelaide has many world class wineries where you can sample some award winning local wine individually or on a guided tour.

You can hire a car and do a day trip to the wineries too. It is a pretty drive through the countryside and only a couple of hours away.

There are many other interesting and scenic drives around Adelaide and the Adelaide hills.

The Barossa Valley is a famous wine producing region only 60klms ( 38 miles) from Adelaide.

This area is world renowned for it's fine wine, the first vineyard planted in 1852 at Bethany.

Barossa Valley area was settled by German immigrants from Prussian Silesia, part of which remains in modern Germany.

The population of the Barossa Valley is approximately 21,00 people.

One of the most famous wineries in the area is "Jacob's Creek"

As far back as 1847, on the banks of Jacob's creek young Bavarian immigrant Johann Gramp planted the Barossa Valley’s first commercial vineyard .

The original cellar Johann’s built is still standing at Jacob’s Creek. It is a fitting tribute to his lifelong passion for wine.

Johann’s simple wine making philosophy gave birth to one of the world’s most popular wine brands.

One of my favorite places to visit in South Australia Hahndorf was established in 1839.

Hahndorf is an historic German town in the Adelaide hills where you can buy authentic German Gifts and Souvenirs, German sausages, go to a Beer Festival or wander around Australia's last German themed town.

The word Hahndorf simply means Hahn's village, named after the Danish sea captain who transported migrants to Australia then helped them to settle in the Adelaide hills.

Those who established this town were religiously persecuted in their home Silesia (part of Poland now) They were Lutherans and arrived in Australia in 1838 and established Hahndorf the next year.

Three landowners provided the site for the settlers for a fee of course, and the area became the supplier of quality fruit and vegetables to the surrounding villages and Adelaide.

Hahndorf used to be on the Princes Highway but was by passed by the new road.

It has become very popular with tourists and is a must see destination.