Monday, 20. November – Dinner with Janet and Leigh
Monday morning, Kerryn and John are awaiting the builder, who will prepare everything for the kitchen to be installed. There are walls to be moved, wires to be laid an many other improvments to be made.
Wendelin drives John at about 11 am to the airport – and in the evening, we pick up Kerryn at work to meet Janet, Leigh and their doughter Erin for Dinner.
Now it’s time to say good by – and to do last shoppings.
Tuesday, 21. November – Shopping and Farewell at Anne and Tony’s
Tuesday we go – after some necessary work – downtown. Kerryn has a day off – not from work, but from us – and she needs some time to concentrate on her work. And of course, she can go to bed once a little bit earlier.
We look for shoes and a windbreaker jacket at Rundle Mall, the big shopping area in Adelaide CBD. That’s not quite easy, although there are many outdoor shops in Rundle Mall and the subsequent Rundle Street.
We get the shoes after a while – and coud find also a windbreaker jacket, but we want to check the price again.
Back at Kerryn and John’s, we prepare a dinner for Kerryn – as John can’t do it, because, he is away…
Then we drive again to Belair to Anne and Tony’s – they have invited us again for dinner. Tony did mediterranian chicken this time. As a „desert“, we present pictures of our travelling in 2007 and 2013 in Australia. And Anne and Tony are really amused by the dance performances that Annette did for the Wandersitzung.
Wednesday, 22. November – Visiting Jane and going to Noarlunga to see Peter and Wendy
Wednesday is already dominated by the approaching leaving. We put our stuff together and in the morning, we go again downtown to purchase the windbreaker jacket. It’s indeed a model of The North Face, that isn’t sold in Europe. And we get a 10 % discount!
We go downtown with the free of charge Adelaide Explorer Bus. It runs every 15 min – but it is not easy to know where it goes and which stops – that have curious names like „X3, „GI“ or „W5“ – it really serves.
Despite this, the bus drivers are an example for friendlyness – not comparable to Germany. Especially the KVB, the Cologne public transport can take a leaf out of their book!
Yesterday, we waited at the wrong stop, on our way downtown. A bus arrived. The bus driver explained wildly where to go and which bus to take – then he asked, where exactly we want to go. „Rundle Mall? Hopp on board – thats only one section away…“ and took us free of charge there.
On our way back on Wednesday, we take again a payed service – and it is again such a „F-bus“, that only takes passengers on the way out of the city – and is not supposed to drop. But the driver askes friendly, where we want to go and if we were „interstate travellers“ – which of course have no clue about public transport in Adelaide…again hop on board, we pay for a two section ticket, he drops us at the right stop – wonderful!
The bus drivers in Adelaide – but also those in Melbourne – prove, that friendlyness and bus driving go to gether well!
After our public transport adventures, we pick up Kerryn at work – she has taken another half day off from work, only to be with us!
We vistit again Jane in Huntfield Hights. She is very pleased about our visit.
The residential care, where she lives, is close to Port Noarlunga, a little town at the Spencer Gulf, south of Adeaide. Kerryn lived there with her former partner for a while – and we have a look on the premisses, where she was.
In Port Noarlunga is the home of Peter and Wendy also. They are friends as well of Kerryn as of Anne and had been to Cologne, years before. There we had a boat trip on the river Rhein together.
After we had a glimpse on our pictures from the past (our trips in 2007 and 2011) we went out for dinner.
The evening end in the improvised kitchen with the high table in the garden of John and Kerryn – and of course with a glass of wine…
Tomorrow, we will be on our way back home – slowly, as we have another stop on the Iland of Bali.
Donnerstag, 23. November – Abreise
In the morning, we meet again the craftsman, who works since three day in the kitchen of our hosts.
That is not to be taken for granted, to stay at one’s home when construction work is going on. Many would have said – „sorry, we have craftsmen in the house, you should take a hotel or something…“
But Kerryn and John didn’t. With them, everthing was very uncomplicated (and we hope, we were too…).
They hosted us without any saying, and we tried to support them as we could. Together, we installed the provisionary kitchen in the garden – and had a lot of fun, doing that!
We meet Kerryn again, have lunch together – and then it’s time to say good bye and Auf Wiedersehen!