Location: /// doodles.embodied.slapstick

Hahndorf is a monument to the early German Lutherans who settled in South Australia in the early 1800s.

After arriving in Adelaide, these families spread out into mostly closed communities in the Barossa Valley and surrounding hills.

Many of the surviving buildings in Hahndorf have a distinct Germanic flavour with the no nonsense, timber frames and substantial stonework of traditional fachwerk architecture.

The town now relies on tourism for its main sustenance. There are plenty of shops selling German themed wares as well as an assortment of quality local crafts, a few shops selling first nation artworks, and of course, the inevitable tourist-trap regurgative.

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It was another hot day, and by the time we got our morning constitutional crap together and walked the kilometre and a bit into town, the sun was high, and the shade was scarce.

First task was to sit down and have a coffee and cake. The choices in cake were vast and variegated…I was in a hyperglycaemic heaven.

After strolling the streets for a short time we agreed that lunch was now well deserved. We settled into a German themed bar/resteraunt with a cool shaded outdoor section (dog friendly). The place was busy, and scanning the surrounding tables, it became immediately obvious that German food portions are constructed along the same guiding principles as their architecture. Large solid servings of sauerkraut, cross-members of bockwurst, fat bricks of bratwurst, cheese kransky, smoked kassler pork chops, schweinshaxe, load bearng walls of mashed potatoes, all accompanied by beer steins the size of fire extinguishers and pretzels the size of Frisbees.

It was intimidating. Luckily, there were also plenty of veggo options for me. Eventually, we both settled for salads. Chicken for Kelly and Falafel for me. Despite our choices being most un-German, the portion size did not dissapoint.

We engaged a long relaxed lunch in which we both refused to surrender to the sheer volume of food (it was delicious). My oesophagus was the autobahn. My stomach was the Neuschwanstein Castle. Soon enough, with all food and conversation exhausted there was nothing to do but power squat ourselves out of our chairs and waddle around checking out the remainder of the town.

So that was Hahndorf, well worth a visit. I would recommend a 72 hr fast before arrival.

And you know what? The body is an amazing thing, because later that evening, I was hungry again. Let’s see what’s in the fridge.

But first…..Kelly decided to bath Juno. He has been slowly absorbing the colours of the outback geologies (and quite a few biologies), transmogrified from a white dog to a red/grey/brown one.

He was not impressed with the return.