last week, my friend Y was here with her husband, father-in-law and aunt.
i went to visit the house they stayed at in Maylands.
they have the whole house to themselves, rented from AirBnB.
very airy living room, with an attic, back yard, 3 or 4 bedrooms, not too far from Maylands station.
about $400 a night.
after some breakfast, we went to Swan Valley, which was about 10 minutes drive from their house.
the train station nearest to it is Guildford. it seems like a nice place to explore on bike as it's cyclist friendly.
Guildford has not many interesting colonial buildings, but they make up for it with tourist-friendly infrastructure.
like this walking trail map and stuff.
i left Y earlier, thinking they will drive up to explore the wine/cheese/grapes far
from the train station, but we bumped into each other at the visitor
center and i hopped back on their car.
we went to a place that sold table grapes in a big barn. they had grape vines for shade in the car park.
homemade grape jam.
Y's family bought me some grapes at $7 a kg. they were really fresh and juicy.
then we went to a wine place called
Sandalford. Swan Valley is a wine region thanks to the migrants to started to grow grapes there. Sandalford is one of the more famous wineries. they have a restaurant and hotel on site too.
the interior of the shop. the guy behind the counter let us try some wines.
i had to go to work at 2pm so i left Y and went to the train station. there were some cute shops selling bread, books, antiques on main street.
i bought a lemon tart at a lunch place where the Asian owner was very friendly and knew all his regulars by name. i saw him in action as he chatted to a new customer and gave his baby some juice.
then i bought a book called
The Crystal Messenger by a Vietnamese writer. i haven't finished it yet but the writing is quite beautiful.
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