Travelling on "The Ghan" - Overnight stopover in Adelaide

Adelaide - City of Churches and Cricket 

Adelaide was but an overnight stopover en-route to "The Ghan" train service. This city is famous for its churches and a love of cricket and for many years was home to its adopted favourite son, Australia's legendary Sir Don Bradman, a cricketer of whom the whole world still speaks in deferential hushed tones.

The new airport is simply gorgeous. Clean, open and spacious with a definite Scandinavian feel to it, there is ample use of panoramic glass windows and warm wood panelling. It is also only a stone's throw from a large IKEA store!

It was a beautiful warm summer's day when we arrived - a cobalt blue cloudless sky and the sun beating down on a parched dry land. There is something quintessentially 'Australian' about this. We respond to the dry air in our nostrils, the muted and pastel green, gold, brown, ochre, blue and purple of the landscape, the way the brightness of the sun almost stings our eyes and makes us squint, and the stillness and expanse of the 'Great Southern Land' in which our heartbeat is just a tiny portion of the pulsating liveliness which underpins everything in and upon it. It is as if once the sun touches the land, the spirit of the land is magnified and radiates back outwards, illuminating us all.

I have not been to Adelaide for many years, and my first impression of it is that it is a bit like a large country town. It still possesses many of its 'Colonial era' buildings, and wide open boulevards. It made me think of other cities with quaint charm, such as Hobart and Christchurch in New Zealand. The centre of the city is laid out in a grid, so it is impossible to get lost, surrounded by the unimaginatively named "North", "South", "East" and "West" Terraces.

I recall from the distant past that the iconic Rundle Mall was quiet and gentrified, with many small cafes and eateries. Now it is busy, noisy and commercialised, not unlike any other major shopping centre/strip anywhere else in Australia. One curious thing was that a movie theatre was nowhere to be seen.

The beautiful St Francis Xavier Church is in the centre of the city, with a sculpture memorial to Australia's only Saint, Mary McKillop, out the front. Inside it is cool, dimly lit and contemplative, with a beautiful rose window above the back gallery. With ceiling fans creating a gentle breeze, it was a welcome respite from the heat.

What to do about food? With an annoyingly delayed 2pm check-in at the hotel (Rydges on South Terrace) our group trudged what turned out to be a very long way in the heat into the city searching for something as simple as a sandwich and fruit drink for lunch. Eventually we stumbled across Gouger Street, heart of Adelaide's 'foodie precinct' and found a Subway. As one of the healthiest of fast food choices, the turkey, ham and salad roll ($8.95 for a 12 inch Sub for sharing) and 500mL Goulburn Valley orange juice with pulp ($3.70) was like manna from heaven and supplied some much-needed energy. On our way back to the hotel, we also stumbled across an intriguing-sounding restaurant called "British India", near the corner of Gouger and Morphett Streets. The original plan was to return here for dinner, but exhaustion got in the way! However, upon researching this restaurant on Urbanspoon, the reviews were almost universally good, so it sounds like one worth trying if you are looking for somewhere to eat in central Adelaide.

Since there was no breakfast included with our package, taking care of this was also another obstacle to overcome. It was too far to walk back to Gouger Street with a shuttle pick-up shortly after 10am, and the hotel breakfast was way too expensive - $25 Continental, $28 Cooked, so another plan had to be hatched. According to the hotel information brochure, there was an IGA in nearby Gilbert Street (they neglected to mention that this was a looong way along the street back towards the city!) so we trudged off again and eventually found it. The airconditioning was a welcome relief and spent a whole $8.47 on breakfast for the group - milk, yoghurt and canned fruit. On reviewing the invoice later, we also discovered that we had been charged $0.10 for a plastic bag. The cashier did not advise that there was a charge for bags. As a strong proponent of recycleable bags at home, I would not have willingly purchased a plastic bag in this instance. Whether this is a South Australian or IGA initiative, they have a duty to inform customers prior to charging them.

On our way back from the supermarket, we decided to check out the bistro in the nearby pub on the corner of Gilbert Street and West Terrace - the Elephant and Castle (reviewed separately) and enjoyed a tasty and cost-effective meal.