Adelaide

We arrived here Friday morning having flown overnight from Singapore. No sleep en route as the guy in the seat behind us coughed all night, so not feeling on top form.

First impressions of Adelaide: everyone seems very young, something I've commented on before in Australian cities. The Aussies welcome migrants, and have pretty much renewed their gene pool over two generations. Downtown, where we are, is a grid system, with free trams. Our hotel is in a pedestrianised bit, and the Adelaide Festival is about to start, so there's a lot of bustle going on. The bad news is that it's cloudy and rain is expected later.

It's a small(ish) city of 1.2 million, and dates back to the 1820s when it was founded as a colony for free migrants, as opposed to convicts. Fans of Aussie place names, where they name something after it's most obvious feature (the Great Sandy Desert, for example) will enjoy the local attraction Mount Lofty. In WA there's a Lake Disappointment, which is nice, as well as a Shark Bay, which must do wonders for the holiday trade.

There's a zoo, which we may visit tomorrow, which has the only giant pandas in the Southern Hemisphere. I'll post a pic or two if possible - wifi here is free but sooooo slow....