Thursday 4th April
This trip to Adelaide was for the AFL 2024 April Gather Round and we were joined by my sister, Colleen, and her husband, David. Our journey from Sydney started with the usual problems that Mark and I tend to experience when taking a bike on a holiday except that this time we had two bikes! The Maxi taxi, we had booked the night before, to take us from our home to the airport did not arrive and so there was then a mad scramble to book 2 large Ubers to take us. It was lucky for us that the two large Ubers both turned up within five minutes and we were then on our way.
The rest of the journey was fairly uneventful and for that we were thankful. We arrived at our Glenelg Airbnb, just outside of Adelaide, at around 1:30 pm and found it to be a charming little cottage, close to the beach, and within walking distance of lots of shops, cafes, and restaurants. The boys spent the first hour or so unpacking their bikes but, after that, there was still a couple of hours before our dinner booking and so we went for a walk up along the beachfront promenade to the main shopping and restaurant area of Glenelg. We didn’t get too far along the way before the boys spied a pub and, so, in we went. It was a nice setting and we were able to sit inside at the front with a screened in terrace where we could catch some sun and views of Glenelg Pier and the huge Ferris wheel.
Our dinner was booked at the Mediterranean Restaurant located about a 15 min walk away from our cottage in the South Glenelg area; and in the opposite direction to that of the Pier. The walk down to the restaurant was through a mostly residential area and I began to doubt my faith in the Google rating system for restaurants. This concern was more pronounced when I realised that the Restaurant was located in an old drive through service station building! There were only a few patrons present when we arrived but the place soon filled up and it was clear that this was a very popular destination with the locals. The food turned out to be superb and it was a lovely evening all around and I would highly recommend this restaurant if you’re ever in the Glenelg area.
It had been a long day so we headed home after dinner so the boys could watch some footy and us girls had an early night.
Friday 5th April
It was a beautiful clear morning but a lot cooler than we had expected. The boys set out for an early ride and Colleen and I took a walk south along the beach promenade. We caught up for a coffee with the riders before heading home to get ready for our trip up the Barossa Valley.
The drive up to the Barossa was just over an hour and our first stop was at Whistler Wines. This is a most picturesque vineyard with a lovely garden, set with tasting /dining tables, out the front of their tasting room. Given it was still rather cool though we opted to have our tasting experience inside. There were a few wines that we liked and these are now on their way to our place in Bondi.
It was after 1 pm by the time we finished at Whistler so we headed back into Tanunda to find somewhere to have lunch. Colleen opted for a cafe but the three of us headed to the revamped Tanunda Hotel where we enjoyed a delicious lunch.
We thought we could fit in one more vineyard and so we opted to visit Izway Wines as Mark and I recently had the good fortune of stumbling across one of their wines. How fortunate that we included them on our to do list though as this was probably one of the most generous and delightful wine tasting experience we’d ever enjoyed. The tasting included all 7 of their available wines and, so delicious were they, that we could have happily bought every one of them! In fact, we now are in possession of 6 of the 7 so that’s not too bad. Interestingly, they only produce red wines; no white or sparkling wine. The winemaker, Craig, had spent 12 years as chief winemaker at Torbreck so we weren’t surprised to find we loved all of his wine offerings as the Torbreck Struie is one we generally use as a benchmark to assess all other wines.
Our tasting at Izway started with the lovely and friendly Kathryn, the wine maker’s wife, and, when she had to leave to do the school pick up, her husband Craig then took over. As a Carlton supporter, Craig wasn’t too happy serving David, given David was sporting his Collingwood cap, but he managed to work through this. The tasting rooms ant Izway are lovely and modern and this is a vineyard I would definitely put on your ‘to do’ list if you’re ever in the Barossa.
It was after 3.30 pm by the time we left Izway and we made our way back to our cottage in Glenelg for a bit of a rest before dinner. The sun sets here just after 7 pm and so we set back out again near 6.30 pm to find a spot for a pre dinner drink where we could watch the sunset. We ended up at the Glenelg Surf Club, which was packed with locals, and had a great view of the sunset from the raised balcony level. We landed a great table on the balcony that offered a spectacular view of the sunset and beach so we decided to stay on there for dinner. The food was very good and this is another place I would recommend to visit if you are ever in Glenelg. We headed home after dinner as it had been a long, full and most enjoyable day.
