Adelaide (Australia).

Thursday 30 November

We were up bright and early this morning for our onward travel to Adelaide. We went down for breakfast and to settle the bill then off in a taxi to Brisbane Airport. Checked in everything ok, it's so easy over here to check yourself and your luggage into a domestic flight, it puts our processes across European airports totally to shame. We boarded the Qantas flight on time around midday and after a pleasant, if slightly cramped, flight we landed into Adelaide two and a half hours later. Thanks heavens for seats on row 4 with slightly more legroom, the 0ther rows looked uncomfortably cramped with next to no legroom.

We took a taxi out to the Adelaide Hilton and checked into the second hotel of our trip where we will be staying for the next eight nights.
All ok and functional with this hotel but definitely missing the customer service and feeling of fun that we enjoyed at the Brisbane Marriott. Felt nowhere near as good from the moment we checked in, especially as Reception advised us from the start that we were only there for one night and were we aware of the checkout procedure for the next morning! We corrected them but it became the bane of our stay as they constantly thought we were checking out before we were due to do so and could never seem to successfully update their systems to the correct date. After all that, we went down to the bar and had a couple of drinks and snacks, it was very busy but a nice set up down there. Pretty expensive though as we are starting to realise most places in this part of the world are!

Friday 01 December

We had a good and comfortable sleep and nice breakfast with lots of choices, then headed out for a walk to check out the area. We found a great market nearby, huge and hustling, and did some shopping there. It was amazing! We passed a great looking bar on the walkabout so after dropping off the shopping and having showers to freshen up, we headed back there for a drink or two. It is part of a local hotel called the Metropolitan which was evidently quite popular given the amount of people checking in and having drinks, and also showed a lot of sport which of course was good for us. We had a good laugh and banter with the Aussies about the cricket, a hot and spicy basket full of wedges and dips, a couple of glasses of excellent local rosé and Dan’s favourite Carlton beer, then headed back to the hotel and called it a day. The hotel is not situated in the most sumptuous of areas and unfortunately there is a lot of homeless people sleeping all over the place, some of whom were very vocal and I found to be quite scary at times, sadly.

Saturday 02 December

We got up early again and had just a light breakfast as we had to be at the Adelaide Convention Centre by 11am for the pre match lunch and presentation for the Adelaide Ashes test (second part of the Official Ashes function which our events company included tickets for us as part of the package). We had a nice walk to the venue and an excellent lunch (roast lamb with all the trimmings) with beers and wine a-plenty and some great speakers in Graham Swann, Glenn McGrath and Phil Tufnell. Highly entertaining banter, very similar to our experience at the function on Brisbane.

After the lunch and presentations were over we headed off to the ground for a 2pm start to the Adelaide test (day night match) but unfortunately forty five minutes after starting, the heavens opened and it was pouring with heavy rain. No sign of an imminent restart and we were getting colder and wetter by the minute so we headed back to the hotel via the supermarket where we bought some wine and light snacks, and watched what little play of the day was left back in our room with our makeshift supper. It was great not to have to eat in a restaurant to be honest and dive into fresh salads, cheeses, warm bread etc. in our own room. And at least we too were warm again, where is this Australian summer that we packed for and heard so much about? The Maltese islands could teach you a thing or two about summer sun and heat that’s for sure!!

Sunday 03 December

This morning we headed back to the Adelaide Oval, after breakfast and showers, for a 1.30pm start to the game to try and catch up on missed play due to the rain yesterday. Lovely thirty minute walk up to the ground which is set by the river and in much nicer and more salubrious surroundings than the rather dodgy areas around the Hilton Adelaide as per my earlier observations.

The weather was not brilliant although it had started quite warm, so by the time we left at 4pm when the teams went in for tea, it had turned really cold again and was not comfortable to sit out in. We walked back in the direction of the hotel, came across a bar/wine bar on the way and had a couple of beers there and yet more banter with the locals about the game. We would have stayed longer but they had no screens for coverage of the game so we headed back to the Metropolitan bar that we found the other night and watched some more play there. Back then to the room to get warm and watch the remaining cricket on the TV with our wine and supper leftovers from last night, sorted!

Monday 04 December

After going down to breakfast this morning and stepping outside the front of the hotel, we decided not to go to the Oval today, the skies are grey and damp and the day is cold again. Horrible weather! So we walked round to the market and the shops and picked up some bits then went back to the hotel and watched the game in our room till 4pm.

After getting ourselves changed and ready, we then headed out to the market bar with the local traders, which was entertaining apart from our dire performance at the cricket, it is now

getting embarrassing at just how badly England are playing. We watched the end of the game back at the hotel with a large bowl of Greek salad (that I had put together in the room earlier) and a large glass of red wine. Having had a good three day start to the match and pretty much holding their own, England are now capitulating, heads are down and we fear the worst for another game lost. Dire.

Tuesday 05 December

We are down for breakfast fairly early this morning and do a bit more shopping before getting ourselves ready to go to the ground and watch the cricket. It is a 1.30pm start today and it is slightly warmer and sunnier so fingers crossed there is no rain stopped play today and England can somehow put in a much needed improved performance. We head off the to the Oval and it is really quite sunny, so we enjoy two and a half hours of cricket before leaving to go to the Spaghetti Western (local bar highly recommended) for a couple of drinks. Really friendly barmaid and great bar and would have stayed, but again no cricket/tvs in the bar so we went back to the Metropolitan bar so we could see how the end of that cricket session panned out. England still just about holding on!

Back once more to the hotel and up to the room for our ‘picnic supper’ and wine, and of course yet more cricket. Looking very doubtful that we can win or draw this test but there’s still a

slim glimmer of hope! Hang on to your wicket tomorrow morning please Joe Root!!

Wednesday 06 December

Feeling tired and lazy this morning (that’s the royal we, Dan was fine!) so we decided to watch the last day of cricket (of this test) from the hotel room. And we are certainly fearing the worst! Could England hang on for a draw or even a win? Of course not, two hours after start of play we were all out (thanks Joe, not) and the Aussies had won the Adelaide test and were now leading the series 2-0. Eek.

We showered and changed and decided that some drowning of the sorrows for our country was in order. So we headed out to a new area and to a restaurant called La Trattoria which came highly recommended locally and was well reviewed on TripAdvisor so we called in, booked a table for 7, and headed into the Kings Head bar across the road for a drink first. And to my delight, they had dry chilled rosé wine on tap, oh my life! Needless to say we had a great couple of hours in the bar followed by an amazingly good meal in the restaurant, which made for a very successful and enjoyable evening (under the circumstances!). Before leaving we booked a table for the following evening, that’s how impressed we were!

Thursday 07 December

Our last day in Adelaide. Headed out to the Laundromat in the morning to wash our clothes from this week, then back to the hotel where Dan got stuck into the ironing and packing, and I went online to do some banking, pay some bills back home in Malta, check in to our Qantas flights for tomorrow’s flights and download the boarding passes.

Jobs all done, we headed out for drinks around 5pm then back to La Trattoria by 7pm. Another fantastic meal, I will certainly be reviewing this place on TripAdvisor! The end of our week in Adelaide was a good send-off. It has been different to Brisbane and will not hold such great memories for us as there, but it was good to discover another city and now we look forward to moving on to Perth. Of our short experiences so far regarding hotels, at the moment the Marriott group leads strongly over the Hilton group. But watch this space as things may change.