Adelaide is the capital of the state of South Australia, and the first freely-settled area of Australia (to separate it from the penal colonies). The city was named for the new wife of King William IV.

The ship docked in the outer harbor, so my “highlights” tour had a 45-minute bus ride thru suburbs to the center of town. This is a very spread out city. Things I learned on the drive:

• South Australia is the driest state
• Burger King is called “Hungry Jack’s“, due to someone else owning the “Burger King” trademark
• Lots of stone/brick construction as there are lots of termites (and lack of usable wood at the beginning)
• Termites even eat power line poles, so the use steel & concrete “Stobie Poles” instead
• We passed Osborne Naval Shipyard, which will construct a series of joint Aus-UK-USA submarines in the future
• Up to 80 percent of electricity of the surrounding areas are renewable, but there are gas turbines for backup
• Of the 1.9 million people in the state, 1.47 million live in Adelaide

As we entered the built-up parts of Adelaide, our guide pointed out a building that locals call the “Cheese Grater“.

There were buildings of different architectural styles, but we were too close to them to get decent pictures from the bus. We drove thru town to get to Mount Lofty at the other side of town. I wasn’t sure about a 700 meter “view point”, but our guide was right. I thought it looked a lot like Phoenix, which makes sense since there is lots of open land to expand into.

We then returned to town and visited the National War Memorial. It showed two sides: Answering the Call and Sacrifice.

Down the block is the South Australia Museum, which deals with natural history. From aboriginal spear throwers to great white sharks.

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We really didn’t get to stop and see much with this quick mostly drive-by tour. But I liked the layout of the city – lost of green area and parks. Adelaide has a Mediterranean climate and it shows.