Goodbye Melbourne: Onward to Adelaide!

After staying a week in Melbourne, Steve (DOS) and I took a 3pm flight from Melbourne to Adelaide, Australia. We had a driver schedule to pick us up at 12 noon, and even with the driver running some 15 minutes late, we still got to the Melbourne Airport by 1pm.

Once at the airport, we checked in with Virgin Australia for our domestic flight to Adelaide. Although I can walk a bit, I still have issues with long distances, so we requested wheel-chair assistance to the Virgin Australia Club, as well as later to the gate. I’m really glad we did that, as it was quite a walk from the check-in desk to Gate 10.

As we were in First (Business Class they call it now), we were entitled to use the Virgin Australia domestic lounge prior to boarding. As we had about an hour before our flight, we made use of this huge lounge, which was quite busy, no doubt due to passengers departing after the Grand Prix race from the previous weekend in Melbourne.

The Virgin Australia lounge offered a nice selection of food, and complimentary beer and wines.

We stayed for around an hour until our wheel-chair escort arrived and took us to the gate. As luck would have it, our’s was the only gate that didn’t have a jetway, and we had to walk down a flight of stairs, before walking up another flight of stairs to the plane, a Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

The First (Business Class) cabin had only two rows on this aircraft, and we were seated in the second row, seats 2A and 2 C. As the flight was only an hour or so, we didn’t expect much, but they actually served a small meal on the flight!

After landing around 4pm (Adelaide is a half hour time difference from Melbourne), we departed the plane, (fortunately by jetway), and were wheeled to baggage claim, where our friend DeAnne from Adelaide was waiting for us. Our other friend Manuela (who was going on the cruise with us) was waiting for us in her car. Manuela drove us to our hotel, the Hilton Adelaide, giving us a short tour along the way.

The Hilton Hotel was conveniently located in the center of Adelaide, next to the Farmer’s Market area, and near many restaurants, a mall, and the city tram. We had a nice suite, and got settled a bit before heading out to dinner.

For dinner Manuela drove us to the Marina area in the Glenelg suburbs of Adelaide. The Riverfront area is located on the water, overlooking the beach and sea, with high end condos, restaurants, and shops spread out along the boardwalk area there.

We had an excellent dinner at SeaFire Restaurant , which was an ultra-premium steakhouse overlooking the water. We had a nice sunset view as we had a leisurely dining experience.

DOS and I split the 3 beef sampler, which consisted of “small cuts” of Filet, Pastrami rubbed Strip, and Wagyu Ribeye steaks. I have had a trio similar to this before at Bern’s Steakhouse in Florida, but these cuts of beef were much larger, and actually DOS and I could have split the meal, however each was paired with a separate wine and sauce (for the beef) so we each had our our steak entree.