We drove into the city on Thursday morning and made our way to the Torrens River to take a cruise on one of the "Popeye" boats. A lot of work has gone into beautifying the riverbanks and we saw many lovely gardens. We discovered that there was an exhibition of Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies in the Festival Centre so we took our time wandering around there and, as you can see, had a little fun there too! I was able to buy a book about CM Barker with many of her illustrations. I only wish I had had more money to spend on some of the lovely fairy gifts they had on display. We headed for the hills to have a picnic lunch overlooking the city and then went searching for bargains in all the antique and bookshops along McGill Avenue. We came away laden with treasures and then my mobile phone rang - it was Elaine to say that there was a big booksale in a hall in town. It took us a while to find this hall but it was worth the effort! As we carried our burdens to the cashier we were asked if we were Abbey Girls. Maybe it's the mad book collector's expression that must come over us all! Apparently there had been quite a few Abbey collectors in that day. We were all ready for a rest that evening and a chance to gloat over our treasures!

Friday, our last day for sightseeing. Elaine arrived early and we set off for the Barossa Valley. A delightful surprise was seeing hundreds of white iris growing wild. Our first stop was Nuriootpa and they had bookshops to hearten any collector. They also had a petshop with 3 adorable kittens who looked at me with melting, begging eyes. I was almost tempted until I thought about how Max and Co would welcome (or not) any more newcomers! Next stop, the local park for our morning smoko.

Next on the agenda was a tour of the Seppelts Winery. It was a little disappointing to find that they had sold the main part of their wine making to another company, but they still make fortified wines on the premises. We were shown the vats where special wines had been laid down for special occasions. Again, it was most interesting and I bought some nice wines and other momentos to bring home. They also had wonderful gardens laid out and the original Seppelt homestead.

We had a picnic lunch in the Seppelt parkland and drank in the view of the hills. Although I could have sat there all afternoon it was time to move on again to visit the shops (yes, including a bookshop!) in Tanunda. From there we travelled up to the Mengler Lookout where we could see the Barossa Valley spread out at our feet. It was just magnificent! There we were also able to see the Barossa Pioneer Memorial. The words there gave us much to think about.