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Published: March 22nd 2014
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Hello from Brisbane Australia, Today we arrived at our first opportunity to go ashore in about a week. But let’s keep this in sequence.
We got to sleep in today and then went to the Regency Room for their formal breakfast. Janet had her favorite Eggs Benedict and David had fried eggs, bacon, and hash browns. It was nice to have a leisurely paced breakfast on a shore day. That’s because the ship didn’t arrive in port until about 8:00, and we weren’t supposed to report to our tour until 10:30. So it was a nice way to start the day.
We got on our bus and had about a 2-hour narrated drive through town. Our guide was named Dorit and the driver was Phil. Brisbane was originally an overflow site for an English Penal Colony. Initially started up the river at Radcliff, that site was not suitable so they moved to the current location of Brisbane. Eventually the region was opened for immigrant settlers. They were part of New South Wales, but they petitioned the queen to make them a separate region – she agreed only if they named it Queensland. Thus the region
was born.
The ship was docked at the commercial terminal because another ship was already at the smaller (closer to town) tourist terminal. But there is a new highway connecting both the pier and the airport to downtown, so it did not take us long to start seeing the sights. In general, Brisbane is a modern high-rise city with a population in the immediate area and surrounding suburbs of about 2.3 million. It seems to be a pretty clean city with buildings in good shape and no significant litter or graffiti. There was a big flood along the Brisbane River in 2011, so they have been rebuilding some of the shoreline, but we did not see anything particularly distressed.
We drove past many churches, hotels, government buildings, shopping malls and stores (both large and small), and a large number of high rise apartment buildings. The skyline is very vertical, with a great deal of growth going higher and higher. However, there are also a lot of public parks, as well as an extensive botanical garden. We also drove through their cultural center (museum, galleries, theaters, etc.). We saw office buildings marked IBM and Boeing
and were glad that we did not have to work at either. We drove past the World War I Memorial Monument with an eternal flame inside. There are 19 steps leading down from one side and 18 steps on the other side – WWI ended in 1918.
The weather in Brisbane was quite comfortable today, and Dorit said this was a typical day. We are located at 27 degrees south latitude, which is supposed to be equivalent to somewhere in south Florida in the Northern Hemispere. In the summer it can get warmer than today and in the winter it can get cooler, but the 79 degree temperature we had was apparently about normal and the variations aren’t too extreme from that. Because the climate is so nice, Dorit said there has been a large amount of growth around the town and that is why it has become so crowded (although today was a Saturday and probably would be crowded any weekend). But the rapid growth in population has driven housing prices higher, and what was low unemployment is now closer to their national average. Anyway, it does look like a nice place to come to.
The bus dropped us at the riverfront and we boarded a paddlewheel riverboat for a 90 minute cruise of the river, including a nice lunch. We were aboard the Kookaburra River Queen (a sternwheeler with 3 levels). We were seated at tables and then one-by-one each was called to the buffet table where we had a large selection of choices of hot and cold food. Meanwhile the boat’s captain narrated the sites we were passing along the shores. David was running back and forth from our table to the outside deck to take pictures. We sailed under several bridges (there are 16 since the Brisbane River snakes back and forth through the town). We observed that almost all building sites were occupied along the river – some with old historical looking structures but many in new “modern” styles. Cruising along the river gave a different perspective on seeing the city. The river is not as big as the Mississippi and Missouri rivers that we are used to. It is a tidal river and the city has developed both riverbanks really well. They also have ferry boats that travel the river so some people don’t ever have cars but
use these ferries to get around the city. One other item, they mentioned that sometimes they do get Bull Sharks in the river in town.
We sailed past Hamilton Hill and Newstead House (dating back to 1846). We sailed past Norman Park and along the riverside of the buildings on Queen Street. There is a man-made beach on an enclosed lake near the river, but not actually connected to the river (the only beach in Brisbane). As we sailed along, and when we were being told about numerous buildings/bridges, one of the ship’s crew played an accordion to entertain us. Actually we don’t really remember all the different places we were shown, but the trip was fun, tasty, and interesting.
After the river cruise, we got back on the bus and drove around through more areas of the town. The bus drove past an old wind mill that was used to grind grain. Since it wasn’t windy all the time, they used the penal prisoners “foot power” to turn the wheels. Brisbane is apparently one of only 4 cities where there is a bridge that you can take a walking tour over the top
(Brisbane, Sydney, Auckland, and Cincinnati) – there may actually be more but that’s what they told us. Anyway, we were back at the ship a little before 4:00. Sadly (and surprisingly) we did not have any opportunity to shop anywhere on the tour – no gift shops or anything.
David started downloading some of the many photos he took today and hopefully some of them will have turned out alright. We also tried to make some notes of what we had seen, before it blurred in our memory.
We went to dinner again this evening and sadly we still were sitting by ourselves. Our old table actually got 10 people today, so we can’t go back there even if we wanted to. The Head Waiter came to see us this evening and told us that he would contact the scheduled couple and find out if they were coming or if he could give the spaces to someone else. We will see if there is any improvement tomorrow.
We both had a spicy seafood appetizer (too spicy for Janet). David had a bowl of hot vegetable soup and then a local fish
called Barramundi. Janet had a cold tea smoothie and then hot Roast Chicken for her entrée. For dessert, she had mocha ice cream with chocolate syrup and David had Crunchy Hazelnut Strudel with Bourbon-Raisin ice cream. Since we had gone past a local brewery several times today, David also had an Australian beer with dinner.
After dinner we went to the theater and watched a production show of the singers & dancers, called “Save the Last Dance for Me”. Janet thought there was a costume malfunction with the main female singer, but David thought it was fine. Then we went to the Vista Lounge to see a cellist play movie songs. It was weird because he played a tape recorder to accompany himself (background music) and it was distracting and didn’t look very professional.
We are back in the cabin and will try to get this posted. Bottom line is that Brisbane seemed like an interesting place to come visit. It could have been any big city, but they seem to have made a considerable effort to make it attractive and enjoyable for residents and visitors.
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