Last week we were lucky enough to be able to take a week off from work and do a roadtrip in our home state of Victoria. Our original plan was to head up to Canberra and then drive back around the New South Wales south coast but unfortunately with a cluster of COVID cases in Sydney, the borders were closed which means that we had to make a plan B pretty quickly. And plan B was to stay within the state border, and it just so happened that our route meant that we were following the Great Alpine Road which was something we discovered after we booked all the last minute accomodation.
Our original plan allowed for a day to visit silo art, and I have to say it was worth the drive, but first we visited a town called Glenrowan which is famous for being the place where infamous Australian bushranger Ned Kelly was arrested following a deadly siege back in 1880. The main reason for stopping in this town was to have scones with jam and cream. Last time I went to Canberra we stopped here and I remembered that the scones were good and the serving of cream was very generous. Given my lovely husband's penchant for cream, I thought he would enjoy it. Whilst the scones were still very good, the serving of cream was not quite as generous as I remembered, but it was sufficient. Oh, and there's a giant statue of Ned in town too! It wasn't the last time that Ned got a mention during our trip!
We then visited a town called Benalla which has an annual art festival where murals are painted on the walls. I definitely think that we will revisit the town after the next festival to spend some time exploring. Jackie, I think this would be your kind of place
I have posted before about silo art, and once again the ones that we visited on this trip were really good, and you can see my favourites by clicking on the link. This video is of a water tank that has been painted. This one is way off the beaten track, along dirt roads, driving through an area that used to be under water when it was a lake. Again this is part of an art trail which we really enjoyed.
On the former lake edge, we stopped at the only cafe in the area, just as the kitchen was about to shut, so the only thing we could have was some hot chips (think chunky fries), but my goodness these chips were so good. It wasn't the first really good chip that we had on the trip either. These were the ones that we had up a Mount Hotham, at the very top of the Australian Alps. We began to wonder if maybe the altitude made the chips better but that didn't work as the reason for this first bowl given that we were at the bottom of a former lake
The various great chips did prompt a conversation about what makes a really good chip - it has to be crispy on the outside, but still a bit fluffy on the inside, and definitely better if they are a bit salty, or with gravy as we had on these ones at Mount Hotham.
One of the other conversations we had was about what a really good tourist town needs. On our journey we visited several big tourist towns - Beechworth (where we visited the jail and heard all about Ned Kelly), Bright and Lakes Entrance - and one of the big discussions we had whilst driving was what is it that a good tourist town needs. There are many things of course, but from a food perspective we agreed that you would need at least one good pub, but there also needs to be a good bakery, and a lolly (candy) shop.
Normally, we have our test of a good bakery is how good their vanilla slice was, but at one of the bakeries we visited their specialty was a beesting. This is something that I have made myself before, so it was nice to compare. I would make it again, but now that we know that we can get it from this bakery chain, and that there is one up the road about an hour or so away, we might find ourselves doing a day trip out that way.
Weekly meals
Saturday- Steak, baked potato, blue cheese sauce and broccoli
Sunday - Chicken Schnitzel with meditteranean vegies
Monday - Beef Stir Fry
Tuesday - Dinner with our family
Wednesday - Green Chicken Curry Pie
Thursday - Chicken sausages, cauliflower mash, gravy and broccoli
Friday - Pork hamburgers and chips
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Those little towns do look inviting -- nice art work, nice food. American little towns are often struggling these days, and the only food is fast food out by the freeway, with downtowns shuttered and abandoned.
ReplyDeletebest... mae at maefood.blogspot.com
A lot of small towns are doing it tough here too Mae. What the art silo trails have done is bought visitors back into these tiny towns. The three I mentioned above are actually pretty big tourist towns
DeleteHow lovely to have a week away and to be eating out. We are looking forward getting out and about -- we hope by our summer. Meanwhile I enjoyed your photos here and everywhere I follow you. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Beth. Don't forget we were locked down for all of our winter and as a result have 0 community transmission cases. Hopefully the numbers in the US will start to drop soon too!
DeleteI agree- every tourist town needs one good pub. I like the idea of silo art,I grew up in a farming area, it would be great to see that. I can't wait until we can all travel and see the sights again.
ReplyDeleteIt's such a good idea! A large canvas that can tell the story of an area, bring tourists to town. Given some of the big silos I've seen in the US there's lots that could be done. One of the factors with the ones here though is that they are often decommissioned silos, rather than active ones.
DeleteThe silo art is interesting, I enjoyed going on a tour with you. We haven’t had a great cream tea since we visited Ireland and all the foods you mentioned are appealing. We plan a steak & baked sweet potato this week but I like your idea of blue cheese sauce with broccoli. Fun post!
ReplyDeleteThat was a new thing for us but we enjoyed it Tina!
DeleteSo surprised to see my name in your post! Yes, definitely my kind of place. We need to do more local road trips, we were doing some around the wine region during the summer. This lockdown is making us lazy or more accurately lethargic. Need to get these bums in gear!
ReplyDeleteWhen we were in lockdown we weren't allowed to go more than 5kms from home so couldnt get out to do these things. Guess that makes us appreciate it more now that we can..
DeleteI love art on buildings! A good road trip always makes for great memories.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely great memories Melynda!
DeleteIt looks like a delicious road trip and fun to go along with you on your post. The murals and silo art are so cool and now I am craving chips. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI hope 2021 is treating you well. I've missed joining in Weekend Cooking for a few weeks so I linked up two posts this week.
I am so glad that you are back on board for Weekend Cooking Deb!
Delete"We stopped at the only café in the area, just as the kitchen was about to shut, so the only thing we could have was some hot chips"
ReplyDeleteThis is what drives me crazy about hospitality in country towns. If you arrive at a restaurant that is about to close in Italy, they serve you anyway. In far too many places here in Australia, it's a case of, 'If you're not from here, you don't matter', and this experience has taught us that much as we'd like to support small town economies, if we actually want to get fed, we bypass the small places.
To be fair we did get there quite late because we weren't hungry after having those scones! But I do understand what you are saying. Not only small towns though. We tried to go to a restaurant at Frankston yesterday that supposedly closes at 11pm but the kitchen was closed at 2.30pm
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