Beautiful Brisbane

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Kookaburras wake up at 5:13. Enough said.

March 19th, 2010

We've really been enjoying our stay with our friends near Brisbane. This morning Mandy and the kids dropped us off at the train depot near their house. By 7:15 we were zipping into Brisbane with all the morning commuters. The train/ bus system is wonderful! We each bought a $10 card that we used at a terminal whenever we got on or off the train (same card for both modes). All along the route were parking lots for commuters to leave their cars. Vancouver could learn a lot.

Brisbane is a really gorgeous city. The day before Mandy had taken us to the highest hill to look down on it. The city is spread out over a long distance but the downtown area isn't huge. We walked along the streets with people who were going to work. The streets are narrow, only four lanes and there wasn't much traffic. We kept bumping into people because the crowds of business people insisted on walking on the wrong side of the sidewalk! We realized right away we were the problem but it was really hard to remember to walk on the left side instead of the right! There are beautifully restored heritage buildings mixed with modern high-rises and the effect is lovely.

The day was cloudy and windy but pretty hot (28) so we used our transit passes and went for a FastCat ferry ride down the Brisbane River. We walked through the Botanical Gardens until we couldn't walk anymore and eventually took the train back to Ferney Grove. Ben and the kids came to pick us up. We're really impressed with how green the city is. The parks and boulevards and roadsides are freshly mowed and, even though I looked, I never saw a scrap piece of paper anywhere. Unlike our subdivisions, Brisbane's neighbourhoods are all shaded by mature trees. The city is very protective and won't let anyone cut down a tree unnecessarily.

We all went out for dinner to the local Samford Pub (it was Ben and Mandy's Anniversary) and had a really nice time. It has been really good to see them; they're good friends even though we haven't seen them in long time. We'll see them again in a month or six weeks time when we come back through Brisbane with the motorhome.

The birds we've been seeing are really exotic. Kookaburras laugh like crazy (really LOUDLY) when they wake up in the morning. Ben pointed out a large white cockatoo which is, apparently, not a nice bird. We saw small green and red parrots in Ben's trees. Dozens of big Ibis' run around the food courts downtown, picking up scraps. There are curlews, plovers; It's fun identifying them.

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