Hahndorf

This morning we were up and away bright and early for a day in the Adelaide Hills.  With a detour into the City to buy some parts for the car, it ended up being quite a long drive.  There were no complaints though, as we are coming to the nail biting, electrifying, captivating finale of the last Harry Potter book.  The final battle is on!  Fred is dead.  Snape is dead.  Remus and Tonks are dead, leaving their poor new babe an orphan.  It is confronting and emotional, and I have to keep sneaking out the tissues to dab away my tears.  It is truly a remarkable series, but I do feel vindicated in my decision to not let the boys watch the last two movies.  Until now.  Now they've earned it.  And so, by the time we arrived at Gumeracha I was an emotional wreck.

We had fun reading the sign and remembering all the places that we've been/seen, but that was not what we were here for.  We were on the lookout for the biggest rocking horse in the world.

This wasn't it.

This is better.

Interestingly, the biggest rocking horse in the world isn't actually a rocking horse.  It doesn't rock.  So it's actually the biggest non-rocking horse in the world.  Anyway, it's unique and another one of Australia's Big Things.  It's built entirely of steel, anchored in over 80 tonnes of concrete set in rock.  It's over 18 metres tall and weighs 25 tonne.  Sadly, they are now charging visitors to climb to the viewing platforms.

The big horse is conveniently situated right next door to Australia's largest wooden toy factory.  We spent some time wandering through and playing with the toys, and Jack spent his pocket money on some honeycomb for us all to share.

It took his mind off his sore finger.

 

Next stop was Hahndorf.  Disneyland for adults.  Australia's oldest surviving German settlement, Hahndorf has a unique 'village' feel about it.  The main street is lined with gift shops, craft outlets, toy shops, galleries, pubs, cafes, smallgoods outlets, cheese factories, chocolate shops and sweet shops.

We started at the bakery, where we bought some fresh home baked bread for our picnic lunch.  Jack was mesmerised by their huge array of cakes.  I convinced him to pick out the one he liked best, but to hold off purchasing it in case he found something better on our walk down the main street.

We bought a Christmas wreath for the caravan in this great gift shop.

 



We sampled some German beef jerky from this smallgoods outlet.

 

The boys parted with some pocket money here at Humbugs.

 

Udder Delights Cheese Gallery has won the 2014 & 2015 SA Excellence in Tourism Awards.

 

We sampled the cheeses and the melt in your mouth German shortbread biscuits.  We came away with some of their delightful double cream camembert and tasty goats cheese.

 

 Tree lined streets
 

Beautiful old world charm

 

We spent many hours meandering along the main street.  Bruce bought me an elegant Christmas present and I had to stop myself from the many other purchases I was tempted to make.

All good things must come to an end, and eventually it was time to return to the car.  Jack had not, however, found anything that surpassed the custard apple tart that he had first seen at the bakery.

Ok, so maybe not just Disneyland for adults!

 

We arrived back at Julie's in Lewiston just after 7pm, hungry and tired.  Julie had been busy in the kitchen while we were out sightseeing and treated us to a delicious roast lamb dinner.   Yum!  We felt very spoilt and a little bit guilty!