Markets, Port Arthur and Richmond

Jam packed today (and my first post of the trip!  Simon’s doing such a great job I figured I’d leave him to it.)

Up before the crack of dawn, well, it felt that way, and off to Jackman & McRoss bakery for a quick breakfast and a couple of takeaway pastries. 

Then down to the Saturday morning Salamanca Markets in time to be there before some of the stalls had even set up – in our experience this is the very best time to arrive at markets, avoiding a least a little of the crowds.  Although, this market is so extensive that by the time we had ambled past every single stall, it was actually fairly well crammed!

Great market, lots of great things to see and some not so good things to smell (neither of us can stand the smell of incense – fortunately there weren’t too many places burning it, but enough to notice!) and some great things to hear – one guy singing 80’s ballads with a beautiful voice, and harpist at another point.  We both made small purchases then grabbed a crab, sorry, cab, but she really was a crabby patches, up to the Avis office to pick up our rental car.

That sorted, we headed down the coast to Port Arthur to visit the site of the Penal Colony. We wandered around with the initial working tour, this was really very informative, and contained much of the info that we received again later on the boat trip around the harbour (you wouldn’t miss much if you missed your scheduled sailing). 
We grabbed a bit for lunch in the museum – which used to be the asylum, checked the database for any relatives who may have spent time there (no hits!) and then wandered off to the harbour tour as mentioned above. Simon did a little more exploring on the way while I took a few photos, but other than commenting that the governors house was climate controlled he didn’t mention anything so I’ll assume he didn’t see anything that really interested him!
We both listened to a little of the audio tour, but decided that the informative bits had mostly been included in the original 40 minute walking tour, although I did enjoy listening to some of the diary readings from the period.

We decided at this point we’d seen as much as we wanted to, so headed back up the coast to the historic village of Richmond.  Took a few photos of the bridge….

And Simon (I asked him to smile. Just smile!)…
 
Drove through the absolutely beautiful little village with all of it’s gorgeous stone buildings and stopped for Devonshire Teas at Ashmore on Bridge Street.  Seriously – these were the BEST scones I’ve ever eaten (sorry Mum!) and Simon loved his iced berry tea. So that brings us up to date again.  No decision on what we’re doing for dinner tonight yet.  We’ve got one more full day in Hobart before heading up to Launceston, although I expect tomorrow we’ll head down to the South coast in a Westerly direction and take in a few vineyards and dairies.  Stay tuned and you’ll find out!

CREDITS: all food and drink photos are Simon’s, the rest are mine.