Mood:
a-okEvery time we mentioned that we were going to Hobart, everyone we talked to said two things. One was, “Visit the Cadbury Factory.” And two was, “Make sure you are there for the Salamanca Markets on Saturdays.”
Okay. That’s easy, except that we found out two days before we left that Cadbury no longer offered factory tours. The Market, however, was still going on. –And it was awesome! They had all manner of wooden products, like cutting boards, pens and pencils, salt and pepper grinders, bowls, etc. They had food vendors, clothes, souvenirs, toys, everything.
The market was truly one of the trips highlights.
After the markets, we left for Port Arthur, which is an old prison, for those that don’t know. Australia, at its birth, was a penal colony for British criminals. The worst of those criminals, and several “home-grown” ones, were sent to Port Arthur, Tasmania. Several of the buildings still stand and tours are available, including the “Ghost Tour” which happens at night. We didn’t do that, though. We showed up, took our pictures, and left for other things.
The drive out there was spectacular. We drove through the mountains, down the coast, saw rock formations, waves crashing, ate Fish-n-Chips, all in all, it was a fantastic scenic tour of Tasmania.
We did make one stop worth writing about. We stopped at the Federation Chocolate Factory. I’d never heard of this, but they did sell Federation Chocolate at the Salamanca Market and we have seen it in stores, so we thought, heck, let’s take a look. We pulled into the parking lot and immediately noted that the place looked closed. Actually, it looked a lot like someone’s house. We tried the door and it opened, so we went in. Inside was a nice lady that explained to us that the old house is now a museum of her Grandfather’s stuff from when he was a lumberjack working at a saw mill. Something like that, anyway. We were supposed to walk through the one-room museum, see the stuff, and (not kidding here), if we behaved she would sell us some chocolate. While walking through the one-room museum making lumberjack jokes (quietly, ‘cause we wanted chocolate!), we were able to look through the one window in the room which exposed the kitchen in all its faded glory. We saw the big chocolate making machine (only one), which was currently idle, the chocolate all being made for the day (apparently). We finished the tour, the lady let us try very small samples of several flavours of chocolate, we picked two or three, paid, and went on our way.
When we got back to Hobart, we had enough sunlight left to climb (re: drive up) Mount Wellington and take some pictures. It wasn’t a particularly clear day (none of them were), but it was still quite a
view.
happy
happy
cheeky
