On Monday morning on the 9th of June I took this picture. Why? Because I am allowed to drive these three cars at the moment :-) To the left the shiny new rental car, in the middle the old Saab and in the very back the really cool but fuel consuming Holden (4WD 7-seater).
Anyway, Christine and I navigated the rental car through the morning Perth rush hour back to the rental company and then took the train and bus back to Manning where we arrived at 9am.
After half an hour we took the Saab and cruised off towards the East of Perth: into the Swan Valley!
As I have been there already I knew where to stop but as it was Monday unfortunately some of the highlights of the Food and Wine Trail were closed. We first went into Sandalford Wines to have a look around the vine yard.
Then we also went inside which I didn't do when I came here on my own. We were surprised to find out that not only weddings but also concerts of some really famous people take place here!
The cellar door was packed with lots of nice and shiny things all centered around wine. It was nice to look at but the prices were as expected: expensive.
Then we headed into the Margret River Chocolate Factory and had of course some FREE chocolate there while we had a good look around the shop
Jam with onions? DISGUSTING!
But a muffin for Christine please :-)
Then we went next door and tried lots of different jams and syrups and other stuff. Some of them really nice, others questionable.
Then we headed to the second winery of the day: Lancaster Wines. While Christine tried the white wines and a rosé I was able to enjoy some FREE cheese. Christine even bought one bottle of the rosé as it was so nice.
Our next stop which I missed the last time I have been in the Swan Valley: Oggies Ice Cream Cafe! After a few FREE tastings we decided to share a scoop of Mascarpone&Caramelised Fig. It was delicious!
I think that this church is not to be missed, so I drove Christine to the oldest church of WA and the so-called birthplace of the Swan River Colony (now known as Perth). Just a quick look around the little church and the graveyard.
From the last three days in Fremantle, Perth city and our Pinnacles Tour we were so exhausted that we decided to only do one more stop for lunch: at Feral's Brewery!
We both had a small beer (a taster). While Christine chose a strange-named Watermelon Warhead which didn't taste like beer at all, I decide to go with the classical White Feral, a Belgium style white beer. It wasn't the best but at least tasted like beer.
For lunch we skipped chips/fries/wedges/mash or anything made out of potato and shared a grazing plate, fully packed with delicatess from the region (as the carte says). Well, looks a bit like an italian antipasti, right? Except for the meat: we found out after tasting it that it is shredded duck! Who knew!
It was a fantastic weekend but exhausting as well. In the afternoon I had to look after the three kids and had another babysitting job. By the time I got back to the house of my host family I was absolutely nagged. Unfortunately Christine's flight had 1.5 hours delay, so she had a very short night as well as she arrived at 2am at her host mother's appartment and had to get up at 6am again. Poor girl! But that's the life of an Au Pair.
What will I do now that I have literally done all there is to see in and around Perth for me? My next stop: the West Coast up North!
Yours Swan-Valley-food-tasting Stefanie
No comments:
Post a Comment
Have your say now! Would you do the same thing or would you do it differently? Do you have any travel tipps for me for my onwards travels? let me know!