OK, I got a little distracted from my travelog with the Smilebox entries, but back to the tour. As I said our little flat tire detour ended up being a delicious side trip. On our way again, we stopped at a chocolate factory, a cheese factory and a raspberry farm, which unfortunately ended up only being a raspberry restaurant with a small gift shop and a walk around the grounds where you could see the raspberry patch about a half a mile away, but that was as close as you could get. A bit dissappointing. Anyway...I'll take this time to say the food on Tasmania was exquisite. I don't think we ate a bad meal anywhere and found several places we'll probably dream about.
Joel and Dot oogling the fondant lady behind the glass. These were melt in your mouth truffles.
I will also mention the day before we stopped at a delightful honey farm and by this time were already packing a few bottles of delicious honey varieties.
Our final stop on Tasmania was Hobart. The capitol city of Tasmania. We stayed right downtown. Ate at an incredible Italian Restaurant (thanks Alan for being an Italian at heart) and met our little waitress who wants to come and tour America during her gap year. The next day we drove south to Port Arthur, which was once a British Penal Colony. Now just ruins and stories of discipline and punishment, religious and moral instruction, and training and education. The English Prison Reformer Jeremy Bentham described his Penitenriary as "a machine for grinding rogues honest" You can't go to Hobart without going to Port Arthur. It is so much of it's history. Unfortunately, we didn't leave enough time in this part of Tasmania and we missed out on many other sights. But in addition to the picture above of a ruin in Port Arthur, you also see Dot and I seated on "tesselted pavement" a natural formation due to water and sand irrosion. It was fascinating to see. The pic above that is a natural bridge formation, they call Devil's Arch and the top is a beautiful picture of the coast of Tasmania. When can we go back and who'd like to join us!!! It was an awesome trip with Dot and Alan. But don't go away, stay tuned for our second week in Australia or our Australian Sapphire Adventure!
