Kathleen
Brisbane, Australia – May 25-28
Not surprisingly, Brisbane is another lovely Australian city. Small in scale but very busy with a wonderful little free ferry service taking people up and down the river banks, a great city-bike system and a fabulous park and trail system.
This is our last stop on the grand Australian circuit and we have managed to make it almost all the way back to Sydney.
Brisbane is mostly new and glassy, but there are several turn of the century buildings downtown giving the city a bit of depth. The central business district is North of the river and a compact area of pedestrian ways and office buildings. The South side of the river used to be industrial, but is now a home for theaters, libraries, and a lovely parkway that goes all along the waterfront. A trellis of bouganvilla winds its way through this park for at least a kilometer and the city has built its own public “beach” and pool area right downtown in the park. It is very popular on the warm days we are there.
Best of all, we met up with Liz & Nigel, who we had made friends with back in Sydney at the opera. They invited us to their beautiful home, also on the river, but a little ways out of the central business area. We had shrimp and oysters for an appetizer and a wonderful fresh salmon for dinner. Best was the company though, and we really felt like we had made some good friends!
Brisbane was a lovely city to visit and definitely worth a stop on any Australian tour. We thought, again, that this city would be very nice to live in. We have grown very comfortable with Australia in our two months and we almost feel like we do live here. But it is time to go home.
We have had quite an adventure in this large and beautiful country. The people have been wonderful, the scenery amazing and the food sublime. The wildlife certainly were a highlight, especially all of the exatic birds and fun marsupials!! This is the longest time we have spent in any country other than the US and the UK, and it was so easy to feel right at home here. In our opinion, Australia, although about as far away from the United States as you can get, is the most culturally similar country to our own. We felt welcome and comfortable in our travels here.
Time to go home and start planning our next trip!!!