Saturday is always a good sleep in day and being
on holidays is no different. So it was sleep and those annoying admin tasks
like washing. Why is it that it doesn’t matter when you choose to do your
washing in a hotel laundry, someone has commandeered both the washing machines?
In this case the hotel staff to wash the towels! Laundry done, we headed to
breakfast to what claimed to be the original Pancake Parlour.  It was a bit of a ma and pa operation in a
back laneway) but the pancakes were pretty good – I of course went for the
Canadian style (served with eggs here) and TC had a pancake stack.

After breakfast we went to check out a
couple of comic book stores in the area around the hotel. The funny thing about
comic book stores in Adelaide is that they just sell comic books – no
figurines, no games, and no other merch of any kind. We wandered through a few
laneways filled with (closed) vintage stores and had a look through a map shop.
The problem with South Australia is that quite a few of the smaller boutique
stores aren’t open at all on Saturdays and almost none were open in the
afternoon. Almost nothing was open on Sunday. After a short wander we caught a
tram to Adelaide central market, the most impressive market I’d seen since
Barcelona. All the delectable delights we had sampled throughout the Barossa
were there and more. Every third store was a deli with locally produced cheeses
and smallgoods. There were baked goods too, gourmet coffee and, although less
extensive than Barcelona, a range of unusual glace fruits. We mused about
picking up some additional supplies but quickly decided there was no more room
in the car fridge. We left this smallgoods paradise and headed into the wild
lands of Adelaide’s suburbs. TC was in search of a map shop to find his holy
grail – a full set of GPS maps of Australia. He wasn’t too keen on the fact
that my phone had better maps. He estimated that we could get a tram to Glenelg
and hop off on the way to find said map shop. We wandered through the3 Adelaide
suburbs, a leafy area, full of bluestone cottages and wondered about what it
would be like to live in Adelaide and what one of these bluestone cottages
would cost. The answer was less than a house in north Canberra but not by
enough. The cottages, an architectural hallmark of Adelaide’s inner suburbs are
quite spectacular, with loads of character. We meandere3d through streets of
them until we came to what looked like a suburban centre. TC found his map shop
and I wandered along the road to find some op shops and charity stores. While
there were plenty of both I didn’t come across any worthwhile finds. We entered
the local small scale shopping mall and despite signs and two sets of directions,
it took quite a while before we found a bathroom. They were strangely located
in the centre of the mall through a long corridor. Call of nature answered and
we wandered back through the suburbs to the tram stop and waited patiently for
a tram to take us to Glenelg. Well, one of us was patient. We arrived in
Glenelg a little late for the rumoured shopping experience so we took a wander
along the beach to see if we could find a restaurant for dinner that evening. We
had brought swimming attire but it was quite gusty (and surprisingly cool). There
was some light rain too but mostly the problem was the wind. Sadly most of the
restaurants along the promenade faced east towards the marina rather than west
toward the ocean and sunset. Living in the east, we were looking forward to
dinner watching the sun set over the ocean.
Eventually we found one restaurant at the end of the promenade with
outdoor seating overlooking the ocean. Alas, it was a seafood restaurant. Good
for me, not so great for TC. We considered drinks at one of the bars watching
the sunset and then dinner overlooking the marina. It wasn’t quite what we were
after but we were ready to settle. Then we found the cocktail/tapas bar at the
marina. We decided to have some lunch on the main promenade to mull it over. I
had fish and chips which was passable but not spectacular. The best part was
the salad dressing which took advantage of the local vino cotto instead of a
much sharper balsamic. We decided the tapas bar was the best choice. It
appeared to be newly refurbished and they were quite attentive when we agreed
to a booking. We requested a table on the outdoor terrace for sunset viewing
(and quiet) purposes. [Starlings – Elbow. My little sis introduced me to elbow
a few years ago – the grown up sound of Manchester]

After a few hours chilling out in the hotel
– I was blogging as TC snoozed – we got dressed up and headed back to Glenelg
for a tapas extravaganza. We were on holidays and we went crazy – with the
cocktail menu as well as the tapas. Well I went crazy with the cocktail menu. A
couple of capiroskas a few margaritas, a beautiful sunset, and a smorgasbord of
tapas, including a delectable twice cooked pork belly, some stuffed zucchini
flowers , local oysters, chorizo. The standout – the pork belly. The let down –
the local olives. The Murray River offerings were far superior.  After dinner we wandered over to catch the
last tram back to town and we weren’t the only ones. Lots of drunken teenagers,
a hen’s night and assorted other late night crazies were the recipe for a long,
noisy and quite packed journey back to town.

Model shops and pawn shops – 6, Big Things
– 12