March 9 - Hobart Area

Monday, March 9 - Day 34 - Hobart and Richmond

Dick wakes up around 7AM with coffee on his mind.  He told Carolyn last night that if he was gone when she got up that he had gone to look for a Starbucks and so he does.  With an address plugged into the GPS he tries for the only one in Hobart and fails to find it or even get on the block in downtown Hobart where it is located.  The city has crazy one-way streets and many are closed for various construction projects.  He remembers that Muers Restaurant, where we ate last night, had a banner advertising breakfast so he heads there and walks in to the sound of a coffee bean grinder!  For $4.80AUD he gets a strong black with cream and leaves.  After parking at the hotel he wanders the dock area in front of the hotel and the coffee goes down so well that he walks back over for a refill; a mocha this time.  Yuumm!

While walking the docks, the magic of electronics allows him to exchange pictures with our son Robert who is skiing in Colorado with his family.  Ski pictures for harbor pictures!

Carolyn is up when Dick returns to the room and she fixes a delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon, croissants and strawberry jam from the strawberry farm which we eat on our balcony while watching the morning’s harbor activity.  We then clean up and head out to explore the area between our hotel and the small town of Richmond.

Our first stop is the Bonorong Wildlife Rescue Park.  Dick is dubious, especially at the $50AUD price for two but we do it anyway.  This place has numerous Tasmanian animals that have been injured or orphaned and it is an interesting walking tour and many of the animals have special stories.  We get some great photos of a Tasmanian Devil who seems to be posing for us.  We hand feed kangaroos and wallabies.  It is getting on toward mid-day and many of the critters are taking a nap break so they are hard to see but we spend an interesting hour and a half.  By the way, Jack has been wanting a Tasmanian Devil to join his band of stuffed animals and we acquire “Tazzy,” a/k/a "Taz" at this stop.

Leaving the wildlife park, we head to Richmond, about 20km away.  It is a national holiday, sort of like our labor day, and the village has lots of people walking the streets and moving in and out of the shops.  We drive through to scout the goings on and find a parking place right in front of the Richmond Bakery, a place that Carolyn has had recommended to her.  We go in and find it crowded with a significant line waiting to order but we finally get two sandwiches and a bottle of Coke and a table as well.  Upon leaving, we order a quiche for tonight’s dinner along with two fruit tarts for $23.40AUD.  We are finding food to be very expensive in Australia and eating dinner out, other than café style like last night, is out of the question on a long trip like this one.  We are not big on fine dining when traveling so the quiche on our balcony will be just fine since we have a small kitchen to prepare things like this and our breakfast.  The bakery agrees to store our purchase for us while we explore the town on foot.  No sense leaving it sitting in a hot car.

Only one of the shops holds anything of allure.  That one is a woodworking shop or, more accurately, a shop that sells things made of wood.  Carolyn finds some gift items for family and we add a wine stopper that has a 1944 Australian penny imbedded in its turned, wooden top.  We hoped for a 1965 penny also but are told that Australia did away with the penny after the 1964 edition.  Oh, well!

We head back to pick up our dinner after looking in a few more shops, the Congregational Church, the 1830's Goal and City Hall and then stop at the Anglican Church built in 1832.  We drive a little way to take a look at another convict built stone bridge and the Catholic Church from the same period.  The gas tank is getting very low so we fill up and begin our drive back to Hobart.

Before returning to the hotel, we take a driving tour of an area near the docks through a pretty Victorian residential section and some of the tourist shopping and dining area, but do not see much of interest that is open on this holiday.  Back in the room, we begin working on this blog, downloading pictures, doing laundry and we introduce Jack to Taz.  We will see how that relationship develops! Yes, we know we are crazy but it is fun!

Dinner is part of the quiche we bought and the fruit tarts.  Carolyn works on the blog late into the night since we had gotten so far behind.  Dick crashes about 10:30PM.