No Tasmanian Devils

Tasmania astounded me and stole my heart. I came expecting wildness, the smelly and fierce Tasmanian Devils, the Outback ends of the earth. Those do exist here, I know, but instead what I found was hundreds of black swans,

a dockside greeting from the Tasmania Police Pipe Band,

a private concert for Azamara guests given by the string section of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra

led by famed concertmistress Emma McGrath,

lovely old buildings made of sandstone blocks,

and fuzzy kangaroo paws, growing in their natural environment. I did see quite a few wallabies and pandemelons, although sadly in the form of roadkill. Happily I didn’t see any of Tasmania’s three varieties of venomous snakes. I admit that Australia gives me snake phobia like no other place on Earth, especially after my experience here https://frenchletters.wordpress.com/2019/09/29/lovely-new-south-wales/

I tasted a lot of Tasmanian wines, 33 in one day actually. This is part of the Derwent Estate winery, whose especially generous tasting flight of 12 different wines and absolutely brilliant lunch menu left my small group, on a tour curated by StelaVino Wine Tours, pretty well blown away. If you ever get to Tasmania do take that tour – I guarantee that you will not be disappointed.

Hobart, Tasmania’s capital, is the southernmost of Australia’s capital cities,

situated just a 2800 mile hop from Antarctica.

It’s a lovely waterfront city with many attractions,

including a smal harbor sculpture park where, in a case of life imitating art, a cormorant dries its wings in the company of a pair of permanently-resident penguins.

There’s quite a bit more Tasmaniana I want to share with you, including Mt. Wellington and the Museum of Old and New Art. That’ll be next, coming right up.