Monday 3 December 2012

a brief vacation

On Friday morning we headed off for to spend the weekend on the beautiful Island (or mainland, depending which side of the strait you are on) of Tasmania.
We got to visit and experience all the things we missed out on 27 years ago when we honeymooned there.
We stayed in Hobart and what a gorgeous place that is. Surrounded by forests and on the Derwent River. We stayed at a hotel right near the harbour with views to die for. The weather was perfect too. We were very spoilt.

view from hotel room
I took lots of pics, here are some of my favourites....
on the way to Port Arthur.
 Port Arthur was a penal colony and prison for convicts that were transported from England. Stealing a piece of bread or clothing could get you a one way ticket to Van Diemens land. Life was brutal. There are only some of the buildings still standing, if only they could talk.
This building in the foreground was a flour mill before being turned into accomodation for prisoners.
Life was very dismal and hard for prisoners. There was also an asylum and 'revolutionary' new section where prisoners were kept in solitary confinement for the term of their sentence with just an hour's excercise a day.
They were forbidden to speak to each other and the guards were also under orders to not speak to the prisoners at all. The prisoners were only allowed to use their voices once a week to sing during chapel service. The total loss of self and identity must have been devastating. No wonder the asylum was so full.



Not all our sightseeing was so sad and sombre...
I also got to visit this magnificent Shop!
The quilted crow in Newtown.
It was such a beautiful shop with the most gorgeous quilts and temptations.
Yes, of course I was tempted! I ditched Hub who wandered down to the nearby antique shop where he managed to out do my spending. If I had known I wouldn't have put back so many of the gorgeousness that I picked up.
I will post a pic of my treasures later.
 There was also a visit to the Cascade Brewery. The oldest brewery in Australia.
We did the mandatory tour and tastings. Lovely jubbly!
The brewery started life as a timber mill in around 1824. It is such a beautiful building. Up until the '90's the workers were able to drink free beer during their breaks, when the bell rang. Occupational health and safety laws squashed the practice and now they can just take home 'rations' once a month.
What a perk!

Was a lovely weekend, now back to the grind....
Next time will show my treasures..
cheers
marina

13 comments:

  1. What a pity, you could have visited for champagne on the deck overlooking the river or I could have helped you spend money at the Quilted Crow :)

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  2. Sounds like a happy anniversary! Tassie looks wonderful, thanks for sharing your photos.

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  3. lovely pics Marina,what a wonderful holiday.xx

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  4. What a lovely weekend. I am so jealous that you got to visit the Crows. Looking forward to seeing your photos and purchases. I have your lovely Suffolk puffs just waiting for their lucky new owner!

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  5. What a lovely picture's from youre weekend holiday.
    Thank you for shring those pictures with us.
    I'm look forward to youre treasures.

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  6. It all looks lovely. Must go there again one day.

    Glad you had a lovely weekend.

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  7. Thank you for sharing your trip and lovely phots - glad you had such a good time.

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  8. fantastic short vacation!! I would just love to go to Tassie sometime.... I guess there are always parts of our history one is not so proud of.... and others that are just magnificent... like free beer at lunch time..... looking forward to seeing treasures of yours and Hub!!!
    Hugz

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  9. Marina you lucky girl! I recognised the first photo straight up. Did you eat at Muir's? Was fantastic when we were there a few years ago. We flew over (Lance won the footy tipping trip) and had no car so there wasn't much tripping around for us but we stayed in a wonderful old hotel only 2 blocks from the wharf/salamanca and about a block to the main shopping strip. Oh we did so much walking up hill and down dale lol. One day we will head over again but take the car on the boat and spend a fortnight. Perhaps I should start saving now lol.

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  10. You had a wonderful trip!
    We'd visited Tasmania last year, and it was a great active vacation :)

    Hugs,
    Tatyana

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  11. Sounds like a wonderful little getaway :)

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  12. Sounds like a wonderful weekend.

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  13. Beautiful photos of such a beautiful place. I love Tassie and your photos are just wonderful. Glad you had such a great weekend. xx

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