Brisbane…rhymes with Rain!
Actually, it’s pronounced Bris-ben, which doesn’t really rhyme, but for the first time in two months, we dealt with rain that put a damper on some of our plans. Brisbane is tropical and lush and gets lots of rain to keep it that way. There were more dry hours than rainy ones, but those hours were hot and humid, so we paced ourselves.
Brisbane is located on Australia’s east coast, about midway north to south and is built along the Brisbane River. The main CBD area is situated on the north side of the river and is lively with offices, shops, restaurants and bars, mostly centered along the Queen Street Mall, which is a series of streets set up as outdoor pedestrian mall. There were multiple outdoor stages and gathering areas with tons of activity and people. On Saturday evening, we found a watering hole with a very talented young lady playing guitar and singing. You know how they say that everyone has a twin. Well, two tables over, we spotted Matt Gardner’s twin (Matt worked with Cindy – someone pass this on to Matt, please).
We ended up chatting with a delightful British couple that were in town on a cruise. One of the true joys of travel is having chance encounters with people from other places and hearing their thoughts on everything from travel destinations to world events. It is incredible to us how foreigners are so aware of U.S. news, and politics in particular. Our friend David mentioned, “When America farts, Australia gets a concussion.” We certainly have had a few spirited discussions. Let’s leave it at that.
Since we have been mostly traveling independently, we haven’t had as many situations that have been conducive to conversing with strangers. Obviously, the exception was the New Zealand cruise. We continue to try to strike up conversations whenever possible. Generally, people are very interested in our little adventure and love our travel business cards. Best $50 ever spent.
We stayed in the CBD in a nice and well-located hotel. Well-located, except on Saturday nights when the Irish Pub next door plays deafeningly loud music until 2am that shook the room.
Please refer back to the Travel Tips post and the section on earplugs. Never leave home without them. Popped them in and slept like babies. Regardless, we had a chat the next morning with one of the hotel managers, who apologized and gave us complementary in-room Wi-Fi in our room for the balance of our stay. In this case, while making the reservation, we neglected to read the fine print indicating that Wi-Fi was only free in the common areas. We’ll never made that mistake again, but it all worked out.
Sunday was a rainy day. We attended mass at the cathedral where instead of shaking hands for the sign of peace, people simply nodded, likely due to concerns over the Coronavirus. We expect similar adjustments to standard customs as the infection spreads.
The area on the south side of the river is called South Bank (clever name, huh ?) which is a large rain forest space with walking paths.
Beautiful. In the middle of this parkland is a manmade beach with a large swimming lagoon. We didn’t swim, but did sit and enjoy the view for awhile.
The east side of South Bank, a few blocks away from the river, has a cluster of small restaurants of every possible variety. The area was quiet on Monday afternoon, although we hear it’s popular in the evenings. After lunch, we continued west to the city’s cultural center with multiple museums and the performing arts center. We spent an hour or so in the Queensland Museum & Sciencecentre. It was interesting, free, and had some much needed air conditioning.
Brisbane has a free ferry system that makes 10+/- stops between the CBD, about 2 blocks from our hotel, and the mouth of the river near the Pacific Ocean. We took advantage of a beautiful evening and hopped on the ferry to see the skyline at night. We rode it to the end and back, which took about 1-1/2 hours. This wasn’t a narrated tour or anything, but was very pleasant and scenic.
Our time in Brisbane went by fast. On to Cairns!