Barossa Valley: February 26th

Yesterday, we spent the whole day wine-touring the Barossa Valley (located about 70km outside of Adelaide). Our tour included 5 different wineries and a lunch. We definitely had our month's share of wine, especially Shiraz!

Our first stop was at Wolf Blass Winery. There, we enjoyed 6 different tastings - a couple of whites and the rest reds. Our favorites were the Muscat and the Platinum Shiraz.

Our second stop was Maggie Beer's Farm Shop where we enjoyed 4 varietals (sparkling chardonnay, Shiraz, cab-sauv, and a Tokay [port-like]) as well as food tastings (chutney, olive oil, different pates,jams, glazes, preserved lemons...) We really enjoyed the Tokay.

Third stop was Barossa Valley Estate Winery. This was the least favorite wine-tasting experience of them all because we were ridiculously rushed through our tastings - 11 different wines in 14 minutes. We didn't have the opportunity to really enjoy and observe each of the wines given. We tried everything: sparkling reds and whites, a sweet rose, a few different blends (red wines), and Shiraz. We enjoyed a regional platter for lunch at the same venue - olives, pate, ham, cured chicken, pickles, onions, bread, and different cheeses.

Fourth stop was our favorite of them all - Langmeil. Our winery host was fabulous. She explained the history of the company, briefed us on the process of wine-making and growing grapes, showed us how they pressed wine, and showed us different vines including the 160-year old vines on the estate. Our wine tasting included many Shiraz and some whites. The muscat and the Orphan Bank Shiraz were our favorites.

Final stop was Chateau Tanunda, a beautiful estate in Barossa Valley. We tried nearly 15 different wines. Ben really enjoyed the Chateau Cab-sauv, while Liya enjoyed the Barossa Shiraz and Semillion.

Overall, it was a fabulous day in wine country.

Melbourne, The Great Ocean Road, and Adelaide...

Hello Everyone! Sorry for the late update! We will try to sum up the past week or so in this entry...

Following Sydney, we flew to Melbourne - the best city in Australia according to Virgin Blue flight attendants :) The weather was incredible - sunny and hot everyday! We spent 3 nights in Melbourne; stayed in hostel located in the Central Business District, in close proximity to everything - Queen Victoria Market, Federation Square, St. Kilda Beach, street and alley cafes, Chinatown, city parks, shopping, etc. We really enjoyed the culture the city had to offer. Melbourne is a very diverse city and it shows - through the variety of cuisines offered; the various art, architecture and modern structures and museums; the culture at St. Kilda Beach; and the variety of people who've come to live the Melbourne-lifestyle. We really enjoyed the food that Melbourne had to offer, especially Chinese food! Our favorite restaurant was this simple Noodle house, a hole-in-the-wall-type, located near Chinatown. The noodles were freshly-made everyday and the sauces/soups were savory - Hong Kong and Shanghai style at its best! The cheap prices didn't hurt either ;)

Next was the Great Ocean Road. We thought it would be fun to rent a car for a couple of days and drive along this famous and scenic route (200 km southwest of Melbourne). What an adventure it was to drive on the other side of the road and on the other side of the car! Ben did a fabulous job driving. On our first day, we stopped in the surf towns of Torquay, Lourne, and Apollo Beach to soak up some rays and window-shop. At Lourne, we ventured into the Otway National Park and hiked a few hundred yards to a waterfall. At the end of the day, we stopped to see the 12 Apostles, twelve beautiful rock formations along the shore, before stopping in the town of Port Campbell for the evening. The next day, we drove back east towards Melbourne, stopped by Apollo Beach, Lourne and Split Point to see the Lighthouse. Our evening was spent in Geelong, a small city 60km outside of Melbourne.

The next day, we flew out to Adelaide, located in South Australia. We have been here for the past 3 days and will stay another three. We have enjoyed everything from Rundal Street with it's many retail shops, restaurants and cafes, the Fringe Music Festival that is going on this week, the Central Market, Chinatown, Gouger Street with its diverse selection of restaurants and bar scene, and the beautiful Botanical Gardens. The Central Market here is the largest indoor market apparently in the world. We bought some produce and kangaroo fillets which we grilled up the other night - deliciously lean and very red meat! We plan to visit the wine country and the beach over the next couple of days before flying out to the Gold Coast on Wednesday, the 27th. The famous Barossa and McClaren Valley are located outside of Adelaide - wineries include Jacob's Creek and Penfold's.

Hope all is well back home...We think of all our loved ones and friends back home all the time! We miss you!

Down Under: Sydney

18 hours later...we arrived in Sydney, Australia, at 7:30am on Wednesday, the 13th. We were fortunate to be picked up at the airport by lovely Adele Buchanan, a friend who we went to high school with and is now living in Sydney working for Dell.

Sydney is a beautiful city with an abundance of greenery, water, quaint precincts, and 'heaps' (as our friend Adele likes to say) of classy high-rise condos and skyscrapers.

For Valentine's Day (which we celebrated a day before the States since Australia is 18 hours ahead), we visited the city business district (CBD), Darling Harbor, The Rocks, and Manly Beach. It was a wonderful day - the sun was out, the temp was in the upper 70s and we came across many wonderful sites and friendly people.

We started the day by taking the tram down to the Central Train Station in the CBD. We ventured into Chinatown during lunchtime and came across many dim sum and noodle houses. We ended up ordering a few chinese pastries at a popular bakery (yum!). Afterwards, we walked through the large open-air flea market, Paddy's Market, which is located right next to Darling Harbor. Darling Harbor is absolutely beautiful - the harbor is lined up with museums, condos, office buildings, shopping centers, restaurants and cafes - reminded us of Seattle. A monorail runs through it as well. From Darling Harbor, we walked towards the Harbor Bridge to The Rocks, an old historic precinct of Sydney. There, we came across many art galleries, cafes, historic pubs and upscale resturants. We took great pictures of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge from The Rocks and witnessed 3 groups of bridge climbers (crazy people!).

The latter of the day was spent at Manly Beach. We took the 30-minute ferry from Circular Quay (located in b/w The Rocks and the Opera House) to Manly Beach. We really enjoyed Manly Beach because it reminded us of a quaint beach town you would find in southern California (i.e. Newport) and even the Oregon coast. The main road in Manly is called Corso Rd. Discounted shops selling all sorts of goods, take away food joints, and retail shops specializing in surfing goods were lined up along Corso. The beach was located at the end of Corso. There were surfers and sunbathers everywhere. We ended up having our Valentine's Dinner at Manly Beach - take away fresh fish and chips from Manly Fish Cafe (a fresh fish market and a take away food joint in one). We took the ferry back to the city at dusk - a lovely end to a lovely day.

The next day, we were pretty drained from all the sun so we took it easy and ventured in the nearby town, Chatswood. There, we walked through the shopping district which had two large malls (including Westfield Shopping Center!) and heaps of discounted shops and restaurants. The interesting thing we came across was the fresh meat markets located INSIDE the mall - haha. Interesting.

Next stop, Melbourne!

Leaving on a jet plane....once again :)

On February 11th, we'll be leaving the Couve to travel the world once again. We are extremely excited for our second 'round-the-world' trip.

Tentative schedule:
-Fly into Sydney, Australia, on February 13th. Spend a month in Australia
-Fly into Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on March 13th. Spend 2-4 weeks traveling through Vietnam - meet family, get used to the intense humidity, eats tons of good food, and enjoy the beauty that is Vietnam
-Travel through Cambodia and Laos over a span of 2 weeks, more or less
-For a good month, we'll explore exotic Thailand
-On to Hong Kong and China, perhaps Taiwan, over a 2-3 month period
-In August, we plan to be Beijing, China, for the Summer Olympic Games

We look forward to be immersed in many different cultures, meet new people, discover new foods, learn new languages, and making memories that will last a lifetime.

Thanks again to our family and friends for their wonderful support!

We will do our best to keep this blog up to date - so stay tuned ... :)