I know that a lot of people, it doesn’t matter if they did a mauritius holidays or one in lovely Adelaide, find that once they get home they forget some vital information about something they saw while on holiday that they wish that they could remember. That is why I always buy a book or two when I’m away. The only time I didn’t do it was when in the States this year and I’m still regretting it.

You may even find that buying a book beforehand is a great idea as reading about the place where you are going to holiday helps you to map out your itinerary a lot better. Failing that you could always visit this blog and hope that I’d written a post on whatever it is you’re looking for.

As I live in Adelaide I don’t actually own a book on the place so I feel uncomfortable recommending any. That is why I went to Amazon to find a book as people who have bought a book on Amazon tend to leave a review and I’ve always found reviews helpful when making a purchase. This book is called Lonely Planet Central Australia: Adelaide to Darwin (Regional Travel Guide) But before we get to that I want to show you a nice photo I took while driving through the Barossa Valley on the weekend.

Lonely Planet has been researching Australia's dusty backroads for 32 years. This new, meticulously researched guide to Australia's center will enrich any travels in the region, whether short excursions from Darwin, Alice or Adelaide, or epic road trips all the way from the Great Australian Bight to the Top End.Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.In This Guide:Indigenous cultures, identities and arts explained in depthDriving advice and outback safety for 4WDs, 2WDs and bikesGreen Index and tips on environmentally and culturally responsible travel

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One thing I didn’t expect to see while visiting Adelaide’s Botanical Gardens was a museum. Then again if you were going to have a museum in a botanical gardens you would expect it to house something to do with botany and even though I didn’t have time to check it out completely I did have a quick look inside and it was stepping back in time.

As you can see the exterior of the building looks pretty new but that’s only because it was refurbished in 2009 with the help of a nice grant by the government in 2007. I’m sure in giving the grant they wanted to please locals as well as those who choose to spend their holidays 2012 and beyond.

What makes this building special is that the interior has not changed since the museum first opened in 1881, which is why I said it was almost like stepping back in time. Upon walking in and looking around you will noticed that much of them original displays and display cabinets have survived, many of them sporting the original labels.

If you’re ever in the Adelaide Botanical, Gardens you should definitely pop in to the Museum Of Economic Botany.

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In my last post I spoke about my quick trip to Adelaide’s Botanical Gardens and to tell you the truth I just didn’t have the room to display all the photos I took that day. If you haven’t read that post you should really head on over and check out The Adelaide Botanical Gardens A Great Place To Visit not just for the content but because there are some great photos there, especially the one of the Victoria Amazonica.

I’m sure that most people visit the local botanical gardens while on their holidays, especially if it happens to be spring. Being spring in Adelaide was one of the reasons why I popped in for a quick visit it our botanical gardens. I expected to see a lot of color from the many blooming flowers and I wasn’t disappointed.

Take this yellow one for example, I don’t know what it was called but I wasn’t the only one to enjoy it as it had a lot of visiting ants. Perhaps it had something besides sheer beauty that the ants enjoyed.
Not too far from this one I came across this one with the brilliant white petals. I wish I had the time to take note of the names of these flowers but like I said in the previous post time was short on that day. Still, maybe one of you guys could tell us what these flowers are called.

OK, now how about something a little more delicate like this pretty pink number.

For the last flower of the day I reckon it just has to be this little orange number. A bit weird looking but it had enough of a presence to attract a bee, but then maybe the bee didn’t have time to visit those other flowers yet.
Phew, all that photo taking sure does tucker a fellow out. Lucky for me I found this park bench in a shady spot where I could rest up a little before heading on home.

Yep, you should definitely make time to visit the Adelaide Botanical Gardens, especially if you love taking photos.

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I was on my way back from the City going down Hackney Road when I suddenly decided to stop at the Adelaide Botanical Gardens. I mentioned it last when I wrote the post on Adelaide’s Bicentennial Conservatory and I thought, it being a beautiful spring day and all, that I would stop for a little stroll around the beautiful gardens. I was only there for about a half hour or so and I was still able to take some nice photos and I simply have to go back again when I have more time.

Walking through Adelaide’s botanical gardens I couldn’t help but notice all the people quietly strolling by or even sitting on the manicured lawns just enjoying the lovely spring day. It’s no wonder that so many who choose to holiday in this beautiful city of ours stop by for a visit.

It was really a pleasure walking through the gardens even for the short period of time that was allowed me. Even though it was getting a little warm in the sunshine it’s amazing how cool it was once I got to Murdoch Avenue and yes it was name after Rupert Murdoch. As you can see from the photo on the left it’s surrounded by huge trees and so you get to walk under a canopy of leaves. The change from coming out of direct sunlight to coolness of the shady environment was quite dramatic. I walked down Murdoch Avenue until it exited and there right on the left was something I’ve never seen before, the Amazon Lily Pavilion, an energy efficient glasshouse that was built in 2007! Man, I couldn’t believe it was that long since my last visit.

Amazon Lily Pavilion

The old Victoria house which was built in 1867 used to stand in it’s place and even then it house this remarkable water lily and the guys at the botanical gardens say fit to maintain the tradition. The glasshouse itself looked pretty modern but no where near as remarkable as the Bicentennial Conservatory. Being a glasshouse and all I’d expect it to get pretty warm in summer but today it wasn’t all that bad. There are quite a few plants around the perimeter although still inside,  of the pavilion itself but I pretty well skipped that because I wanted to see what the lily itself looked like.

The first water lily I saw was beautiful but it wasn’t all that spectacular. It was the Blue Nile Lily also known as Nymphaea Caerulae and was a plant that was sacred to the Egyptians who believed that in the beginning darkness ruled the world and then then this beautiful lily rose from the abyss and when the flower opened it’s petals revealed a young sun god sitting in its golden heart who banished the darkness and allowed life to begin. Now that is what I call a dramatic entrance.

It wasn’t until I gazed to the center of the pond that I saw the center piece of the pavilion, the Victoria Amazonica.

 Victoria Amazonica

This flower just happens to be Guyana’s national flower and many say it’s an appropriate choice for a county whose name means “land of many waters. There is a particular story of a girl who fell in love with the moon and one night while gazing at her lovers reflection in a pond she slipped, fell in and drowned. The moon taking pity on her turned her into the Amazon waterlily which only blooms at night when the moon is watching over her. Strange that this particular flower was blooming in the middle of the day.

What was also amazing was the huge lily pads. When I first saw them from a distance I thought that they were fake but upon a closer look they were obviously real. If you want to know more about the botanical gardens you should head over to the Adelaide Botanical Gardens government web page.

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Last night we decided to dine out and as is our want to try out new places to eat we decide on Martini Ristorante which is located on 59A The Parade Norwood SA 5076. Upon waking into the restaurant I thought it had a really nice atmosphere especially with the presence of a lovely wood oven, which I thought would lend to some really traditional cooking, especially the pizza. Nothing better than a tasty wood oven pizza.

Unfortunately we were directed to another room which apart from the bar was really very drab looking. As we sat down we couldn’t but help notice all the noisy chatter, especially from one table of revelers. The noise was such that it really spoiled out dining experience, completely different from Chianti which I reviewed on my Chianti Classico Restaurant Adelaide, A Great Experience post. Perhaps management should consider doing something to that room that would absorb the noise as well as lift the atmosphere of the place.

Martini is obviously and Italian restaurant, and being of Italian background I was looking forward to a lovely meal.

As an entree I decided on the Gnocchi al Ragu, a house made gnocchi with tender veal pieces in tonato ragu. Although this was really a main I asked for it as an entree and I have to admit it was absolutely divine. The gnocchi dumplings were absolutely divine, definitely the best I’ve ever had, so light and fluffy I’m sure the only thing stopping them from floating off the plate was the sauce and tender veal pieces, both of which only added to the a very tasty entree.

For my main I chose the Risotto alla boscaiola with portobello & porcini mushrooms, sage, barolo wine & baby spinach. Those of you who follow my reviews would know that I love my risotto, unfortunately this one, as far as I was concerned,  was below par. Although the rice was cooked to perfection the dish just wasn’t very flavorsome. It definitely could have done with a little more salt but considering the ingredients I was expecting more. I let my wife sample some of it and she thought it was alright but sorry I can have alright at home, when paying for a meal I want something more.

Speaking of the wife, she had the Pappardelle con Anatra, a flat wide ribbon pasta served with slow cooked duck and field mushroom ragu. Now that was something that looked really tasty and so I had to sample me some and it was as tasty as it looked. After speaking to the others that were dining with us it seemed that I was the only one whose dish was left wanting. Oh well, c’est la vie.

By that time the noise had become intolerable and after telling the waitress we would love to stay for dessert but we couldn’t eat with all the noise around us she has us moved to the front of the restaurant. Much better, and not longer after the move we noticed another table from the ‘noise’ room were right behind our heals. Seems we weren’t the only ones that found the noise level intolerable.

For dessert I had the Bombaloni di banana, a banana & chocolate beignet with vanilla custard. This consisted of four tasty balls that were of a cinnamon donut consistency and texture, with a chocolate center, each surrounded by a little vanilla custard. Don’t know where the banana came in. Overall it was passable. The wife had the Crème Brulèe, a vanilla crème brulée served with house made almond biscotti which was quite tasty.

Apart from the risotto and the noise the only other disappointment was the service. Although the staff was very friendly they just were not around often enough. There were times when we needed drinks and no-one was around to ask. I also think that the it took way too long for the main to come out. We sat down at about 7.30pm and we weren’t served the main till after 10.  Other than that it would have been a very enjoyable evening.

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If you were to drive around Adelaide, every now and again, you would see a tower of sorts and you may be wondering what they were. The one pictured here is the Norwood water tower, and as the name suggests it used to hold water. This particular one supplied water to the surrounding area, but I would say it wasn’t so populated when it was constructed.

Currently this water tower is for sale and one would assume that it would command a tidy sum of money considering it is located in the heart of Norwood which is always busy as it’s a popular cafe and shopping district.  Apparently there was even interest from interstate from an investor who wants to turn it into a boutique hotel.

At the moment three floors are used for residential purposes but the rest remains pretty well vacant. They reckon it’s worth about 3.2 million, and it would be a pretty good investment. Imagine, you already have tenants that you’d be collecting money from, you could set up a sizable home for yourself in the midst of Norwood and rent of the rest of it for even more income.

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You may remember the post of Colonel William Light the man who designed and laid out the planning for our lovely city and the picture of the statue of him over looking Adelaide, well this post is about another well known explorer, Matthew Flinders.

Matthew Flinders was the man who circumnavigated Australia charting what was then an unknown coast. You could basically say he put Australia on the map. The name Australia can even be attributed to him as he thought it sounded so much better than Terra Australis.

This is a statue of this great man which can be found on North Terrace Adelaide.

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It was my wife’s 50th birthday last week and so we decided, seeing as how it was a momentous occasion, we would celebrate it in style. That being the case we decided on the Riverside Restaurant which just happens to be one of Adelaide’s favorite buffet restaurants. I didn’t realize how sumptuous Riverside’s buffet selection really was until we rocked up on the night.

Even though I’m not a seafood fan, my wife is and it is her night after all, and it just so happened that the Riverside features a great range incorporating the best of local seafood and produce, as well as a range of decadent desserts, and I have to admit the desert was to die for.

Like I said I’m not into seafood but Anna and the guests were and they absolutely loved it. It consisted of fresh prawns, oysters and crabs. As can be seen from the following photo the presentation was superb.

Next is a photo of some of the selection of salads and stuff.

What I really liked was the roasts and desserts, and the fact that the service was impeccable. They were even nice enough to organize a small section of the room just for us. This photo is a view of the restaurant from our little special spot.

As I said they supplied great service which included this margarita just for Anna.

It was a great night and the family had a great time. You’re all wondering about the price. Well the buffet itself was $65 per head which I though was more than reasonable. They had a nice selection of wine, of which the guests chose Lehman Shiraz at $45 per bottle and Kalleske Clarry’s Grenache Shiraz at $46 a bottle, both which was dearer than what you would pay in a bottle shop but withing reason for a restaurant of this type.

Beers included Coronas, James Boags and Crown Lager which were $10.50 and $9.50 respectively, and Hahn Light at $7 a pop. The only thing that knocked me for a six was that they charged $10 for every bottle of water (Santa V Still) which I thought a bit rich.

Anyway, like I said, it was a great night and well worth the money spent and I didn’t even need a cheap cash advance to get through it. The Riverside Restaurant is located at North Terrace in Adelaide and if your interested in more details about this Restaurant please phone them on (08) 8238 2384.

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The War Memorial Monument which can be found on North Terrace is a popular spot for tourists, especially those interested in war history. Opened in 1931 to commemorate all those who served in the first world war it holds significant value every year on Anzac Day (25 April) and Remembrance Day (11 November).

I love to walk the length of North Terrace as I like to consider it as Adelaide’s cultural boulevard. This is because it’s full of heaps of great examples of early South Australian architecture including Old Fowlers Lion Factoryn now The Lion Performing Arts Center, and the Anglican Holy Trinity Church, Adelaide’s oldest church, which was built in 1838.

This is a photo of the front of the monument.

This one is of the rear.

As you walk around the memorial you will see crosses that were taken from the battlefield where the soldiers died and brought back as a memorial to their great sacrifice. This is just one of them.

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Although Adelaide’s Bicentennial Conservatory was built in 1988 to celebrate Australia’s bicentenary I’ve yet to walk through it, even though I’ve walked by it on more than one occasion. I reckon that this is the year that I may actually see how beautiful it is inside, but I’ll probably wait until it’s a bit cooler as I’ve heard it can get quite humid in there.

I think it’s great that they accepted Guy Maron’s design as he’s a South Australian architect. Although the whole structure is 100 metres long, 47 metres wide and 27 metres high, as you can see from the picture it’s quite delicate in design.

Last I heard it housed between 3000-4000 plants that were specifically selected from Australasia and Malaysia. The Department Of Environment And Heritage has a lot more information on this remarkable structure, which can be found in the Botanical Gardens, including opening hours and admission prices.

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