We are just at the end of 5 days in Glenelg/Adelaide Southern Australia. Adelaide is a city that was founded in 1836 by the British and has prospered over the last nearly 200 years. Glenelg is the seaside resort community of the city and was originally populated by Adelaide's elite in huge seaside homes not unlike Newport RI. Many of the stately old mansions have been replaced with high-rise apartments and hotels, still uncrowded in comparison to Hawaii or California. Adelaide had wealth early in its history and as a result built beautiful public buildings and reserved park lands on the four sides of the original city. The surrounding countryside is mainly agricultural now containing some of the best vineyards in Australia. The Barrosa, and Claire valley are just two of the many surrounding wine regions. In addition many grain crops are grown and cattle and sheep are raised. Adelaide has a population of 1.25mm which is a very significant city in Australian terms. It is very different from Perth in many ways, the most striking to me is the way every thing seems to be "prim and proper" in Adelaide where as Perth is new and brash. Calgary is more like Perth I'm not sure there is a Canadian equivalent to Adelaide. Adelaide is very British, it was settled by Brits, there were never any "convicts" used as labor and Australia has had an extremely white only immigration policy. Many of the non Brit immigration from the 1950's were either Italians or Greeks, hooray!!! finally some decent food!! Aussies have some unusual linguistic customs. Everyone has a nick name and they love to shorten words. Anyone from either Scotland or Ireland with a Mac or a Mc in their name is referred to as a maccer. Therefore in Australia the restaurant McDonalds is referred to as Macca's or if you want to get a hamburger you would say " do ya wanna grab a macca?" The department store Wollworths is referred to as "woollies" ,everyone knows that mozzies are Mosquitos. I will gather a more complete list and publish it as a compendium to these blogs. The weather has been perfect during our stay at Glenelg, however the mercury is on the rise and it is expected to rise to the low 40s by the weekend. We leave tomorrow to drive thru the Grampions which is a park like Banff and then onto the Great Ocean Road which will lead us to Melbourne and the Australian Open!