"Some of the best and most memorable moments in life are those that aren't planned"
Having spent the previous couple of days at home, preparing and holding our garage sale, we as a family decided it was time to get out of the house for a few hours on Sunday afternoon. Deciding we wanted to do something where we could take our dog Blaze, suggestions of locations we could visit were thrown in the ring.
Hahndorf was the winner! So within the space of an hour from deciding to do something we were on our way.
For anyone that has never visited the beautiful town of Hahndorf it is well worth the trip. I will however say that if you have the opportunity to visit during the week rather than on a Saturday or Sunday, you will find the town easier to navigate and less 'busy'. Weekend day trips to Hahndorf are extremely popular for not only Adelaide residents and intrastate visitors but also for overseas and interstate visitors to our great state of South Australia.
A little bit about the town's history: (credit to www.hahndorfsa.org.au- for this information)
The historic town of Hahndorf lies within a gentle and undulating expanse of the Adelaide hills.
Hahndorf was zoned as a state heritage area in 1988 by the Government of South Australia and acknowledged as Australia's oldest surviving German settlement. The German history can be traced back to 1838 when George Fife Angas, a Director of a South Australian Company, made a trip to London to promote colonization. During his trip he met Pastor Kavel, who was trying to help German Lutherans, being persecuted by the King of Prussia, to immigrate to safer places. Angus was moved by the plight of the Lutherans and persuaded Kavel that South Australia was a suitable place for emigration and also provided generous financial assistance of $8000 pounds.
On the 28th December 1838 the 344 ton ship "Zebra" carrying 187 German Lutheran immigrants (38 families) arrived in Port Adelaide. The ships captain, Dirk Hahn, having formed a bond with the passengers on his ship, helped them to negotiate a parcel of land (100 acres) in the Adelaide Hills to achieve their goal of settling and farming together. The new settlement was named Hahndorf ( Hahn's Village) in honour of Captain Hahn who had assisted the refugees to achieve their goals. Further information about how the town was settled, planned and thier journey to today can be found at the above link, a interesting read and well worth a look.
As they state on thier website : ' While many visitors come to Hahndorf to get a glimpse of the past, Hahndorf is increasingly acknowledged for the modern and the chic and generally a trendy place to wine and dine or to hang out with friends. Hahndorf has become a unique town where you can walk the past and taste the future.' - I totally agree and it appears so do many others by the huge numbers of people taking advantage of some beautiful Autumn weather that we are currently experiencing!
Hahndorf has a lovely village feel to it, with one long Main Street that is filled to overflowing with great places to eat, souvenir shops, gift shops, leather goods, craft shops and galleries. Hahndorf has two pubs that serve traditional German fare as well as a large number of eateries offering from Indian, Thai, Ethiopian to what I would class as standard menus, (however some with a twist).
My favourite place to eat in Hahndorf is 'The Haus' whether for a beautiful breakfast, yummy lunch, afternoon snack or full on evening meal. The menu is wonderful with great variety on offer, a kids option, wonderful staff and beautiful food.
I particularly love browsing through the multitude of shops that sell beautiful fashions, one of note is a boutique specialising particularly in wool (knitted jumpers, coats etc in merino and angora). Another favourite activity of mine is browsing the beautiful hand made candle shops, my favourite store being 3 Wishes Candles. A word of warning for those with sensitive noses, the fragrances can be slightly overwhelming when entering these stores but the products on offer are of a extremely high quality, made on site and you very rarely see anyone leave the store without some kind of purchase.
If driving yourself to Hahndorf, please note that parking can be hard to find at extremely busy times! However keep looking, and I'm sure you will find a parking spot somewhere along the Main Street or one of the side streets. Come prepared with some comfy shoes, a leisurely stroll from one end to the other of the Historic Main Street will take around 15 to 20 minutes, that is of course if you aren't tempted to stop in any of the wonderful stores, cafes, bakeries, pubs etc along the way! There are a couple of lovely parks where you can sit on a beautiful day for a bit of time out from the hustle and bustle of the visitors all meandering through the towns Main Street.
We arrived at Hahndorf early afternoon and were fortunate enough to find a car park relatively easily at the Mount Barker end of the Main Street (very lucky as this does not always happen). So, car parked, husband, daughter, son and myself plus our 1 year old puppy Blaze (miniature schnoodle)
secured on his leash we set off, with no firm plan of what we would do in mind.
After walking probably around half the length of the Main Street we spotted a really inviting looking park across the road where we thought it would be nice to have a time out from the crowds, particularly for our puppy. Navigating crossing the road can be difficult with a constant stream of cars however we were able to do this successfully (thank goodness) however I resolved that next time we were to cross we would do so at the pedestrian crossing lights a bit further up the road.
After a walk through the park, chats to some of the visitors, particularly those with dogs as well, we decided to find somewhere that we could find a light snack, and a long black coffee for me! Just about every eating place in Hahndorf offers outside seating which was great for us having brought our dog along, however it was extremely busy. We decided to take a long shot and try our favourite eatery 'The Haus' and were lucky enough that a visiting family were just finishing up when we arrived so we were able to get the table they had been enjoying outside. (I really think we had luck on our side on Sunday!).
We decided to share one of the 'rustic' pizzas on offer and some of the famous 'Haus' beer batter chips with Aioli for our snack, a long black coffee for both my husband and I, a 'fresh' apple juice for my son and my daughter chose a 'strawberry' cider ( yes she is over 18). I had a taste of the cider and was pleasantly surprised, I had expected it to be extremely sweet and sickly, this was not the case. I have to say to me it tasted more like a strawberry flavoured beer, however very enjoyable.
After a leisurely feed my children voted for icecream to finish off from one of the many gourmet icecream stores on offer. With full stomachs we opted for a leisurely stroll further up Main Street where we came across a 'Copenhagen' Store. Dilemmas ensued in trying to choose which delicious flavour to order! After much umming and ahhing we all made our choices then decided to utilise the pedestrian lights which were located right next to where we were and then meander back to where we had parked the car.
Turning across the traffic on Main St in order to head home was bit challenging however the kindness of other motorists assisted with helping get us on our way. Whilst our spontaneous activity may have only lasted about 3 and a half hours, we all enjoyed it thoroughly and returned home feeling happy and refreshed. If you havent enjoyed visiting Hahndorf or it has been a while since your last visit, I thoroughly recommend you make the effort and either acquaint or reacquaint yourself with this truly special location!
Remember spontaneous activites can be a lot of fun, embrace them and go for it!
On the 28th December 1838 the 344 ton ship "Zebra" carrying 187 German Lutheran immigrants (38 families) arrived in Port Adelaide. The ships captain, Dirk Hahn, having formed a bond with the passengers on his ship, helped them to negotiate a parcel of land (100 acres) in the Adelaide Hills to achieve their goal of settling and farming together. The new settlement was named Hahndorf ( Hahn's Village) in honour of Captain Hahn who had assisted the refugees to achieve their goals. Further information about how the town was settled, planned and thier journey to today can be found at the above link, a interesting read and well worth a look.
As they state on thier website : ' While many visitors come to Hahndorf to get a glimpse of the past, Hahndorf is increasingly acknowledged for the modern and the chic and generally a trendy place to wine and dine or to hang out with friends. Hahndorf has become a unique town where you can walk the past and taste the future.' - I totally agree and it appears so do many others by the huge numbers of people taking advantage of some beautiful Autumn weather that we are currently experiencing!
Hahndorf has a lovely village feel to it, with one long Main Street that is filled to overflowing with great places to eat, souvenir shops, gift shops, leather goods, craft shops and galleries. Hahndorf has two pubs that serve traditional German fare as well as a large number of eateries offering from Indian, Thai, Ethiopian to what I would class as standard menus, (however some with a twist).
My favourite place to eat in Hahndorf is 'The Haus' whether for a beautiful breakfast, yummy lunch, afternoon snack or full on evening meal. The menu is wonderful with great variety on offer, a kids option, wonderful staff and beautiful food.
I particularly love browsing through the multitude of shops that sell beautiful fashions, one of note is a boutique specialising particularly in wool (knitted jumpers, coats etc in merino and angora). Another favourite activity of mine is browsing the beautiful hand made candle shops, my favourite store being 3 Wishes Candles. A word of warning for those with sensitive noses, the fragrances can be slightly overwhelming when entering these stores but the products on offer are of a extremely high quality, made on site and you very rarely see anyone leave the store without some kind of purchase.
If driving yourself to Hahndorf, please note that parking can be hard to find at extremely busy times! However keep looking, and I'm sure you will find a parking spot somewhere along the Main Street or one of the side streets. Come prepared with some comfy shoes, a leisurely stroll from one end to the other of the Historic Main Street will take around 15 to 20 minutes, that is of course if you aren't tempted to stop in any of the wonderful stores, cafes, bakeries, pubs etc along the way! There are a couple of lovely parks where you can sit on a beautiful day for a bit of time out from the hustle and bustle of the visitors all meandering through the towns Main Street.
We arrived at Hahndorf early afternoon and were fortunate enough to find a car park relatively easily at the Mount Barker end of the Main Street (very lucky as this does not always happen). So, car parked, husband, daughter, son and myself plus our 1 year old puppy Blaze (miniature schnoodle)
secured on his leash we set off, with no firm plan of what we would do in mind.
After walking probably around half the length of the Main Street we spotted a really inviting looking park across the road where we thought it would be nice to have a time out from the crowds, particularly for our puppy. Navigating crossing the road can be difficult with a constant stream of cars however we were able to do this successfully (thank goodness) however I resolved that next time we were to cross we would do so at the pedestrian crossing lights a bit further up the road.
After a walk through the park, chats to some of the visitors, particularly those with dogs as well, we decided to find somewhere that we could find a light snack, and a long black coffee for me! Just about every eating place in Hahndorf offers outside seating which was great for us having brought our dog along, however it was extremely busy. We decided to take a long shot and try our favourite eatery 'The Haus' and were lucky enough that a visiting family were just finishing up when we arrived so we were able to get the table they had been enjoying outside. (I really think we had luck on our side on Sunday!).
We decided to share one of the 'rustic' pizzas on offer and some of the famous 'Haus' beer batter chips with Aioli for our snack, a long black coffee for both my husband and I, a 'fresh' apple juice for my son and my daughter chose a 'strawberry' cider ( yes she is over 18). I had a taste of the cider and was pleasantly surprised, I had expected it to be extremely sweet and sickly, this was not the case. I have to say to me it tasted more like a strawberry flavoured beer, however very enjoyable.
After a leisurely feed my children voted for icecream to finish off from one of the many gourmet icecream stores on offer. With full stomachs we opted for a leisurely stroll further up Main Street where we came across a 'Copenhagen' Store. Dilemmas ensued in trying to choose which delicious flavour to order! After much umming and ahhing we all made our choices then decided to utilise the pedestrian lights which were located right next to where we were and then meander back to where we had parked the car.
Turning across the traffic on Main St in order to head home was bit challenging however the kindness of other motorists assisted with helping get us on our way. Whilst our spontaneous activity may have only lasted about 3 and a half hours, we all enjoyed it thoroughly and returned home feeling happy and refreshed. If you havent enjoyed visiting Hahndorf or it has been a while since your last visit, I thoroughly recommend you make the effort and either acquaint or reacquaint yourself with this truly special location!
Remember spontaneous activites can be a lot of fun, embrace them and go for it!
