Today we had planned a wine-and-food tour through the Adelaide hills, partially as a farewell trip with my family and partially to show Manja around a bit.  We picked up a 10-seater minibus at 8, swung by to grab the family and headed off the McLaren Vale, listening to old-school German pop songs which Manja had arranged to the delight of my family.

Mum made a sign for the day

Our first stop was the d’Arenberg Cube which I’m sure most of my Adelaide readers will be familiar with.  It’s basically a three-story rubrics cube, the bottom floor of which is an artistic museum which even includes a psychedelic surround wall projection setup. The second floor is a function space and restaurant and the top floor is a wine-tasting room of the establishment. Needless to say, after exploring the museum for a bit we spent a bunch of time tasting all there was to taste on the top floor.  Well, the others did…  I had to drive the bus!  A real highlight are the bathrooms…  You have to find the entrance first, and there is a lot of funny stuff in there.  Unfortunately it’s incredibly awkward to take photos of Toilets, so I just took two really quick photos in a few moments I had the space to myself.

 

Part of the projection installation

After we were d’Arenberg-ed out, we headed on over to grab some Fruchocs at the original Fruchocs store in McLaren Vale.  For those who don’t know, this is a company which basically puts good chocolate on…  well everything.  Famously on Dried fruit like apricots, but also gummy-bear like mint leaves.

After that we headed over to the Almond train, an institution which I had not visited myself before. But if you’re like me and like Almonds, definitely head over there sometime.  It’s a 1920’s train carriage converted into a shop, which sells almonds roasted and coated in all sorts of goodies.

By this time it was about time for some real food, so I took the group down to Red Poles where we had a beautiful lunch outside with a simultaneous craft beer and cider tasting.

 

Feeling well fed, it was time for another winery.  This time we stopped by Fox creek wines, which was lovely and the lady doing the tasting with us happened to speak German – which was fantastic news for the grandparents in particular.  Doris had been here many many years before, on her first visit ever, so it was a somewhat nostalgic moment for her.

The next stop was a bit further away, as we headed to Hahndorf to Buzz Honey and the Hahndorf soap factory. Both are some of my favourite local producers to bring souvenirs from.  While the family settled down for a coffee, Manja and I had a whirlwind tour of Hahndorf shops, which were unfortunately closing as we arrived.  Luckily the Hahndorf candle shop was still open, which remains one of my favourites.

As the stores and wineries were closed, we headed over to the Mount Lofty lookout as a final stop along the way.

At this point we were quite tired, in particular the grandparents, so we decided to call it a day.  We headed down the highway and we dropped everyone off and headed home for the night.