Adelaide Hills and about.

Another of my favourite things to do in Adelaide is head to the hills. It is always a few degrees cooler than down on the plains of the city, so in summer it can be a nice change. I have always enjoyed the hills as it feels like another world, full of small creeks and rivers, it always seems greener than the rest of Adelaide and of course there is a thriving artisan community there. With cheesemakers, coffee roasters, wineries, breweries and famous bakeries there is an endless supply of things for the eyes, the tongues and the stomachs of the world.

First stop was Johnston's of Oakbank. Once a brewery and now a winery and cordial producer.

Their cordial range.

Next stop a little further along the road was Woodside Cheese Wrights

Where they make some amazing cheeses, especially their soft cheeses.

Like the Monet a goats cheese covered in edible flowers, this is worth the drive alone.

It runs out of the old SA Farmers coop building.

Then a cruise down to Gumeracha (pronounced Gum-er-aka)

if you are great with geography you will be able to figure out where we went next.

Or does this help?

This won't

a little more of a hint

This is just a babe on a baby

Because this is where we were, the world's biggest Rocking horse!

They also have a wildlife sancturary there so many rescued animals are to be found in the grounds.

Then we went about face and back to the town of Hahndorf where we found a wonderful coffee roaster

Who took us through the process of roasting coffee. What a great smell! Southern Crema Espresso Bar at 76 Main St, Hahndorf.

So that was a brief hills tour.

Ireland - The Burren

The Burren, a barren area of Western Ireland, is absolutely beautiful and home to a really great perfumery that uses many native plants/flowers to create really localised products. You can see their products here. Otherwise, just scroll through the photos. :)

Some of the local colourful bits

A killer porter cake, and I mean that literally it had walnuts in it and they didn't tell me! Cue me wanting to vomit and being covered in hives!

savoury scone

The Burren

Local mayor

More of Adders.

Ok so lets see what else we can tidy up here.

Adelaide really is a veritable mixed bag when it comes to things to see and do. There are plenty of small art galleries around the place if that excites you, there are also a number of decent museums as we have touched on earlier. Let's not forget to mention the wineries around the City, in the suburbs as well as East, South and then the Barossa a little further North East from the City. Due to time constraints, we were only able to go to McLaren Vale and to my favourite winery in the Adelaide Hills, Bird In Hand.

When we ducked into the winery tasting/cellar door area we were lucky enough to meet Clement. The cheerful and happy-go-lucky Frenchman hosted us for the visit and was nice enough to let us taste some back vintage Rieslings, which were all holding up very well. The earlier vintages were getting the traditional kerosene finish to them that only good Riesling's get. He was nice enough to tell us some great stories about his travels, as well and about the wines we were tasting. Of course at the end we were so excited that I had to purchase more wine, which I think brings my total in the cellar (of Bird in Hand wines) up to about 150.

Sometimes there are advantages to living overseas, your cellar ages well and you don't think about them, well not as you might if you were at home. I thoroughly recommend anyone in the Hills region to follow the signs from Woodside and try their wines and olive products , it is a great location and the wines are superb (and award winning).

The tasting room behind a lawn that screens roll on me!
The storage towers and the gallery to the right.
Me wondering what I will do with yet more wine for the cellar! Luckily, reds from Bird in Hand age well.
The superb olive oil which has made it home to Poland safe and sound and already enjoyed itself on some fresh Polish bread.

When in the Adelaide Hills, there really is no chance of going past Hahndorf and not stopping. It is a really great town in the sense that it is really touristy and really cliche/embarrassingly naff. I love it and have ever since I was a child. So of course I took Marty there for a little bit of experience that is Australia doing Germany.
One of the great things about Handorf is that there is a wide variety of food (and advertising boards), from the traditional German sausages and even a German version of Golonka through to the common and now probably traditional Aussie fastfoods of Spuds aka baked potatoes.
Sometimes I just love that simple repetition of normality.
Soft Autumn sun can work nicely sometimes.
Also Handorf is well known for its handicrafts/art works/oddities.
Whether they be mosaic tables or tin rats.
Or why not iron ducks.
Luckily being in the hills, Autumn hits a little early as it is always a touch cooler (temperature wise) up here. Of course being a German town, the plantings here are a lot of the time European in nature giving some fiery colours.
Or some strawberries if you so desire.
Even more out of the blue was that this time I found an Indian store there which has some lovely bells.
And all sorts of different knics and knacs.
Being a great home of produce, not just the delicious wines of the wineries, in the area there are more traditional things such as Beerenberg the home of some of the most lovely jams, sauces, and honeys. Some of which made it back to Poland with us and they are going very well on our pancakes.
There are many different varieties we bought a fantastic Cinnamon and Fig jam.
Also to be found in Handorf is some rather odd and scary animals in cans! I doubt I would eat them but maybe some tourists like them. At nearly $AUD20 (56PLN, 12GBP, 17USD) I hope they taste as funny as they look!