We had a nice relaxed start to the day today as for the first time in what seems like a couple of weeks we were not trying to get up to either see a sunrise or to start a walk before it all got too hot! We had a few walks around Adelaide planned for today which we had no problem doing as the temperature here is about 10C less than in the Northern Territories. Our first walk was called Above the Canopy which was basically a walk around the historic buildings along the main shopping street of Rundle Mall. Originally this road contained a number of theatres as well as shops none of which are still around as they have all been turned into shops or shopping malls. Some of the original malls are really ornate and we went in a few of them, the strangest thing was seeing all the Christmas decorations and window displays while walking round in shorts and t-shirts! They have a display about the 12 days of christmas which contains a number of different displays although only a few contained things we would recognise as Christmassy! From here we we started our second walk which was around the great buildings of Adelaide. This took us around the area we are staying in and has was where the original government buildings and is where we are staying. It is where the Post Office, Treasury, Town Hall, Reserve Bank and Court buildings are. They are all quite grand and are predominately on a square called Victoria Square which is a quite nice area with a couple of interesting fountains. We stopped for lunch at the end of this walk in a little mall just next to china town where we had a really nice plate of fried rice and chicken satay then it was time to start our final walk for today which was around the market and china town area. This was the area where there were another couple of theatres, a couple of schools but also the original schools that were built once the education act came into force. There is the girls school, teacher training school as well as one they call the model school which wasn’t actually about teaching children how to be models but the school that was first set up and that all other schools in South Australia were based. At the end of this walk we stopped for a well earned drink and decided that we both really like Adelaide, it has a really nice feel and the fact it is warm but not baking is really nice. After we finished our drink we took a walk back to the Rundle Mall to have a look around the shops as there are quite a few different ones after which we came back to the apartment for something to eat and a relax before heading off to explore a bit more of Adelaide tomorrow.
