The Barossa Valley day 1 and 2

It's hard even know where to begin on our trip to the Barossa there is so much to tell, so I will have to just start at the beginning. For the trip we decided to rent a car. It is a roughly 10 hour drive from Melbourne to Adelaide/ Barossa. Sunday morning we got up around 5 am got the car packed up and headed out for a day on the road. We took our first stop about 3 hours in at Mcdonalds for some breakfast. I was a little disappointed to see their Mickey D's (or Macca's as they call it here) breakfast selection was not as broad as ours. they do however have a ton of pastries and espresso drinks in their McCafe section which every McDonalds has here. After eating we headed back on the road. Our next stop was in Mt. Gambier and the Umpherston Sinkhole. Csaba and I took a ton of pictures as soon as i have them uploaded I'll include a link for ya. It was beautiful! After this stop we pressed on for a few more hours making only one more stop for gas and to grab a quick snack. We did pretty well with directions until we got to the outer edges of the Valley. At this point it got a little rough and my navigating skills were definitely not up to par. But in the end we made it to our hotel safe and sound. We took showers and decided to take it easy and just enjoy dinner in the hotel. We had a big day ahead of us the next day! Through the hotel I had signed us up for a Wine and heritage tour of the valley for Monday. It was a great way to start our trip and see a lot of the area. Our tour guide Werner was incredibly knowledgeable about the area and a lovely friendly man. On the tour with Csaba and I were another younger couple with whom we became buddies with and another older lady. A nice part of the tour was that we not only got to taste at a ton of wineries we also learned about the origins of the valley. It was actually originally settled by Germans who had migrated to South Australia to escape religious persecution, yep you got it, they were LUTHERANS. There are probably upwards of 20 Lutheran churches down there and 1 catholic. If you look it up you will notice it is not a large area. They have Lutheran Churches like we have Starbucks, one on every corner. The first place we visited was Bethany, a more boutique sized winery with nice wines including a yummy white port. We bought a bottle of that and their GR5 a 1997 Cab. This was the beginning of the slippery slop that led to us buying a total of 21 bottles on our trip. From Bethany we headed to Yalumba Winery, Penfolds, then Peter Lehman where we tasted some unique wines and also enjoyed a delicious platter lunch with cheeses, dried fruit, olives, almonds, fruit spreads, dips, salami, prosciutto, and Apex bread which is made fresh in the area. From here we went to Rockford, Charles Melton, and lastly Seppltsfield a dessert wine maker where we took a tour and learned how the family created their own village which included hundreds of Palm trees lining the roads. During the tour they talked about their famous 100 yr old port, $1000 a bottle, made each year from the very best product, set aside not to be released till it is 100 years old. They were pouring the current vintage for $50 a taste. Csaba, being the ridiculous person he is, absolutely had to have a taste. So after the tour they set him up in the special tasting area and for $50 in a souvenir 100 yr dessert wine glass we got a taste. Wow! what a complex flavor! layers and layers of herbs and tobacco aromas and flavors along with molasses and anise. You really couldn't try to taste anything else after that so it was a really good thing it ended our day! By 5:30 we were spent we headed back to the hotel, ordered some room service and made it an early night. We were both excited to enjoy the spa the next day!