Having enjoyed our first night at B-Rad's lovely old flat that does not include a washing machine even though it explicitly says that it does on the advert, we awaken to prepare ourselves for our 3rd Greeters tour in Australia. Now it's Adelaide's turn!

The sun shining, we meet Andy our guide around 20 minutes late. This was due to our slight confusion regarding the free bus shuttle service in Adelaide. It probably would have come, but we didn't trust it fully, so we walked instead. Turns out that walking IS slower than the bus (especially so, if you stop for a coffee and a raisin slice on the way, that is! :D )

Andy is keen to get started and make up for lost time. As such, his initial style of tour delivery appears affected. It's only us on the tour with him today, and for the first 20mins we barely get a word in edgeways. After he relaxes into the tour however, we are able to get some conversations going, which to be honest, is one of the highlights of all these Greeter Tours - we get to speak to real locals, and they have to speak back to us!

We soon learn that Andy is a retired policeman from the South Australian force who, at some point in his career, also worked a few years as a policeman in Hong Kong (because he fancied a bit of a change, as you do). His political bent was very left wing, and he didn't really much care for either Tony Abbott (lots of swearing), or indeed cricket (chat induced by my cricket hat). Andy also liked to refer to England as 'Pommy land'. When first using this term, he initially he corrected himself... Until he saw that we took no offence. Then, he said this consistently. It occurs to me that 'Poms' really don't have decent equivalent to this gentle slur. Or if we do.. pray tell dear readers, can you tell us what it is so we can reciprocate??

We learn that his wife is a lawyer, having made her career representing many left wing organisations and social care groups. And that they had recently married in Las Vegas, where they now appear to frequently holiday. If fact, they are to fly to Vegas next week.

Our tour started in Rundle Mall - the main, pedestrianised shopping drag in Adelaide. Andy was pretty scathing about the recent, multi-million dollar refurbishment of the street, complaining that a lot of the character had been lost. Although we thought he was just moaning a lot, we did note that the street looked no different to the Pitt Street Mall in Sydney, or the one in Brisbane, so we took his point.

First up, he pointed out the 'Mall's Balls' in the middle of Rundle Mall. This was an art installation of a couple of large, shiny, polished metallic balls, one placed on top of the other. It was apparently by a Swedish artist, but we mainly liked it because the 'Mall's Balls' nickname. It apparently acts as a useful meeting place for Adeladians.

We soon walk past the famous Chocolatier, Haigh's. This was a posh shop we had already spotted in the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney, no less. Apparently Haigh's is a family run business from Adelaide and Andy appear to be very proud of them. He encourages us to visit their factory later on for a free factory tour, and tells us of how the company successfully 'Australianised' the Easter Bunny by substituting the rabbit with a bilby.

As we walk down Rundle Mall, we spot way off in the distance a quarry, some 100km away. Andy takes a moment to point it out, first because it was a key quarry in the original construction of the city. Then he asks us what colour we believe the patches are between the yellowey/orange stone. Green, we respond... For it looks like bushes or trees. No. Instead, he reveals that it's actually black, as it's a trick of the light and distance that we assume it's green. Apparently, the South Australian government legislated that once the quarry ceased to be operational, the concerned mining companies should 'return it to it's natural state'. As this is quite a broad definition and open to interpretation, the mining companies decided that instead of planting trees... They would simply paint the quarry black by spraying it with tar. Ha!

Andy then describes to us the construction of the Adelaide as a town planning exercise for free settlers, indeed it was the very first city in Australia founded exclusively for free settlers.

Interesting factoids of the tour include...

- The wide streets here were not planned for trams, or cars (as this was too early), but so that horses and carts would not splash mud onto lady pedestrian's dresses - how very civil
- That as this city was the first to be founded without convicts, there was initially no Police Force at all, for there would be no need, right? (!!) This remained until the original English marines started to misbehave (as they had no convicts to bully here). And it was they who were then gainfully employed as the Police Force. Indeed, the first person imprisoned here was a policeman!
- We spotted the first apartment building built here was for 'nice but dims' from England, and that it is still in operation today as residential flats. Very nice it was too
- The police barracks in Adelaide was its first stone building, when at the time, the local jail was still a tent...
- The old bit of the state library is beautiful and could be a film set at Hogwarts, in Harry Potter
- That having 'title' to a property, is short for having a 'Torrens title'. This system was the invention of Robert Torrens, who was the 3rd Premier of South Australia, and replaced the 'deeds' system. The river that runs through Adelaide is named after him in homage
- The homophobic murder of Dr. George Duncan, a University of Adelaide Law professor in the River Torrens by police, precipitated South Australia to legalise gay sex. It was the first state in Australia to do so. Tasmania has only just followed suit a couple of years ago.
- The impressive looking Adelaide Oval is the beneficiary of a recent $500m refurb paid for by the State, in an effort to bring Australian Football and Cricket back together in the city (the State will now promptly sell off the old football stadium for redevelopment)
- As impressive as the stadium is, a new bridge was also built in order to move exiting fans across the Torrens into the nearby rail station post-game. However, as building costs spiralled, in an effort to save money (just $2m in the end), they cut the width of the bridge down 2 metres. Now, there is always a bottle neck on the bridge after games. False economy anyone?
- When the South Australian Parliament House was built, they ran out of money. So it was left incomplete for many years (literally half the building had not been built - right down the middle, or 'down the guts' according to Andy). It was finally completed when a local family paid for it. Tax breaks for life?
- Charles Cameron Kingston a key person in the development of Adelaide and Australia, was a humble, humble man, who declined the opportunity to become a Senator in the first unification of all the States. Although Andy told us he refused the Order of the Garter from Queen Victoria, we smelled BS and it turns out he actually turned down a knighthood. He did become a member of the Privy Council though, so probably not republican, just modest?

During the walking tour, we also stopped twice with Andy to have coffee, where we chat mainly about politics and the similarities between Britain, Australia and the USA. He pays both times, which annoys us!

So some 4 1/2 hours later... We conclude the tour. He gives us a feedback form that we we really must fill out positively, and we go our separate ways. These Greeter tours are really fabulous, and we look forward to the Melbourne one!

Doing a little bit of shopping at Woolies, we return home on the free Adelaide inter city bus (it only does two routes, so it's not as great as it sounds), play cards, eat and go to bed.

Tomorrow we travel to the local Laundrette, as this flat doesn't have a washing machine. Grumble, grumble....

Our favourite Andy-ism of the day:

"By sheer bloody arse!"

Trans. "By total coincidence" or "As luck would have it"

AF