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| Downtown Brissie from the South Bank |
This morning we left our very nice Fijian hotel and took the 1 minute shuttle ride to the airport. After checking in, we had a quick and light breakfast at the airport, and then boarded our 4 hour flight to Brisbane. Upon our arrival, we took the AirTrain, which was right there at the airport, directly to our hotel. It was a 20 minute ride and it did literally drop us of right at our hotel.
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| Bougainvilla laced walkway - South Bank |
After checking in, we walked around Brisbane, for about 2 hours. First we walked through downtown, and their Queen Street Mall (nothing much) but then we walked over the pedestrian bridge, over the river, to the South Bank area. It actually turned out to be really nice. There was a main street with lots of restaurants (we ate at a Chinese restaurant) and then we discovered a second street with a craft market going on. And then we discovered their beach park right next to the river. It was really a very cool place – where they constructed these huge “pools” that looked like ocean coves, with sand, etc. A great playground for young and old. And next to these beaches there was a children’s water play area which was also done really well. A great public gathering spot to play and relax.
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| Beach/Pools along the South Bank |
On our walk home along the river’s South Bank, we came upon this rain forest that was being preserved. Also, there was a lot of plant life that Joanie just loved seeing. It’s Spring here, and it looked a lot like Southern California, with bougainvillea, jasmine, agapanthus and jacaranda everywhere. Our walk began under overcast skies, and somewhat hot and humid, but the clouds parted and the sun got a lot warmer. By the time we got back to our hotel room, we showered and collapsed for the rest of the afternoon.
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| Old & New in Downtown Brisbane |
When the sun started to go down, we went out to dinner to a place called The Groove Train. Very cool atmosphere in that it was outdoors (perfect temperature now) in a big square right in front of the old City Hall, which they are currently restoring. Had a pizza and Greek salad (can’t get over our Europe trip yet I guess!). Also had a couple of glasses of Australian wine, which was also very nice. The funny thing that happened was that we actually heard them play a Men at Work song. Of course there was a lot of American and English music being played, but it was kind of funny to hear some “ancient” Australian music still being played there. Are they really still that proud of that album? J
