On Thursday we decided to explore Adelaide and get our bearings in this city. This is a very industrial city, but beautiful as well. A main industry has been the manufacture of the Holden automobile (a GM car like Chevrolet) and Ford. But now those factories are going away to other shores - the usual story - so important jobs will go away.
They have a free bus service for the city and North Adelaide (where we’re staying) called the City Connector. The stop for it was right outside our little complex of apartments, which made it really easy. One route goes clockwise, and one anticlockwise (that’s the word here!). As the stops are the same, it just all depends on when you want to get on and for how long!
We successfully made our way to the downtown (CBD - Central Business District they say in Australia) and to the Rundle Mall, a big pedestrian-only zone where all the major shopping is located. We stopped in at the Tourist Information to find out what would be open and closed on Good Friday. Good Friday is a national holiday in Australia, and large shops and businesses are legally obligated to close - they face big fines if they don’t. So everything pretty much just shuts down.
We looked around in the Rundle Mall for a while. These days downtown shopping in developed countries looks pretty much the same everywhere. But Australian shops have their own flavor and style - lots of nice clothing and shoes. We looked in at Country Road and Trenery, shops where our friends the Powelsons always go when they are in Perth/Fremantle.
After the mall we made our way to the Central Market. This is terrific. Like similar markets in other cities, it has farmers’ produce, meats, cheeses, bread, and flowers. It is a really fun environment, with a lot of activity and variety. We had fun picking out a couple things for dinner. People were lined up everywhere buying their food for their Easter dinners. Here that’s mostly fresh seafood - fish and beautiful local prawns. It was fun to be there and to stand in Easter-prep lines ourselves! We left the market and found our bus stop and headed back to the apartment. Along the way there was a lot of police presence in one area, with news cameras and all kinds of excitement. It was by the River Torrens, which flows through Adelaide. We learned later that a body had been discovered in the river. Our bus driver had an interesting (and successful) time negotiating the bus route so everyone could get where they wanted to be!
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