Touchdown in Tasmania

First let me finish up on the last bit of Melbourne activity: The laundry got mostly dry and Tony was sure that the ‘dinner’ listed on my ticket for Tas would be on the order of a biscuit or cracker. So, we had a bit of pasta with pesto – fresh, homemade pesto that was lovely.

Anne dropped me off at the airport, e-ticket technology worked great and I got all officially ticketed with a seat and gate and all – to find out that the flight was listed as being 10 minutes late. No biggee.

We eventually boarded 10 minutes later than we were supposed to have taken off – Melbourne was down to one runway on a busy Friday night so all the planes coming in had to wait as well as all the planes going out.  Wound up being almost an hour late for arrival into Hobart.

The flight is a quick 55 minutes and the stewards really scurried to deliver and clean up our dinner: white bread sandwiches with some sort of pressed beef slices, processed cheese, lettuce and ‘onion jam’. Now, I don’t know about you, but I thought it meant onion slices and jam and just couldn’t wrap my mind around what sort of jam would be used on a beef sandwich. It turned out to be a sort of thick gravy with cooked onion bits in it. Try anything at least once….  Cute little flat bottles of water, though!

My Tas hosts, Di and Chris, were waiting and scooped me up and off to their home in Dunnalley. A rainy evening, chilly – but snuggled under a doona and wool blanket and I slept the whole night.

Started off this morning with a chat with my love and some friends in Cinti – just love the internet!

After a filling breakfast of oatmeal topped with stewed red plums we headed off to the Saturday market along the waterfront in Hobart – Salamanca (named after a battle that Nelson or somebody fought and won – we think!) An older part of the city where they’ve kept a lot of the old buildings – quite lovely.

Tried Tom’s trick of keeping the camera on, holding it down out of normal sight and taking pictures from that low level – haven’t looked at them yet but I expect at least one or two good ones from the market crowd.

A stroll around the harbor area – including lunch at the Art Museum – then a bit of business that Di had in town, then a bit or sightseeing from Lindisfarne on the east side of the Derwent River.  And THEN, since it was advertised and on the way home, we stopped at Puddleduck Vineryards and Winery for a taste testing – passed up a number of other vineyards in favor of Puddleduck – they don’t sell anywhere else but their own place. Have to support the locals, you know.

We all agreed that the Reisling was the best after checking out all the testing wines on the list – starting with the Bubbleduck.

On to home, winding through the countryside. Now, waiting for the steak to grill and the veggies to steam while enjoying another glass of wine and some cheese, crackers and hummus. Very mellow right now!

Looking forward to another fine day tomorrow.

Ed.: pics of countryside and Hobart harbor area now online.