Thursday – March 20, 2025
If you look carefully at the featured photo you will see that the ducks lined up perfectly at the edge of the pond. I called them my ducks because I happened to be there when this happened. The glass work in the photo is by Dale Chihuly from an exhibit on display in Adelaide through the end of April. Here is a link to info about that exhibit.
Today’s excursion is one of those provided as a part of the cruise. We weren’t expecting anything amazing but were pleasantly surprised. As we began the journey from the dock to the city of Adelaide we passed a facility that will be used to build nuclear submarines in a deal between Australia, England and the United States. It is named AUKUS. Our guide/driver Peter said work hasn’t begun yet but should soon. This is a deal where France thought it was going to be the supplier but at nearly the last minute it was changed to the UK and US. France was not happy!
As we drove on Peter pointed out a sailing ship that is in the process of reconstruction. You can see it in one of the media with the Australian flag flying.
Peter pointed out one of the major traffic killers of the area – the Stobie Pole. Due to their unwavering nature, when hit by a vehicle the vehicle always looses and any occupants are likely to die. The Stobie Pole isn’t limited to Adelaide, but we didn’t see its use in other Australian cities. Peter said that at one time Adelaide had another type of killer – people. It was once thought of as the murder capital of Australia. The Snowtown Murders were a case he suggested we Google for more info about Adelaide’s sordid past.
We drove through the heart of Adelaide – a city of about 1.25 million. City looked clean and had plenty of new construction. We arrived at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. That was the surprise of the trip. The gardens were featuring the artwork of Dale Chihuly. There are many photos in today’s media showing some of his artwork. One of our favorites was the sun (Soleil). Each of the artworks is lit at night – wish we had the chance to see that as well.
Today is a special day for Jan and I – we met on March 20th in 1971. To celebrate we chose to have some bubbly at dinner. There is a photo of the label from the bottle we chose. Never heard of it before but it was very nice. Couple photos from dinner as well.
The evening’s entertainment was a lady from Australia who sang songs made popular by Aretha Franklin – Nina Ferro. Her performance was very good and at times we could swear we were listening to Aretha. Nina will be back in a few days for another performance. We’ll be looking forward to that.
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