Saturday, May 7, 2016

May 7 Brisbane

Brisbane was an unplanned stop for us.  Newcastle had been on the schedule for May 8, but a planned harbor protest convinced Oceania to cancel and pick another place.  We had visited Brisbane on our Australia/New Zealand trip in 2005, and welcomed the change.

Because of our late change to Brisbane we were relegated to the hinterlands dock, the Fisherman's Wharf Grain Elevator dock -- appropriately named.
 Oceania quickly laid on shuttle buses that did an excellent job of getting us to city center.  For Brisbane the Queen Street Mall is the shopping center.
 Buskers on the mall
There was a Festival of Chariots going on, which looked to be a single Hari Krishna float with people chanting.  There were also a few tents set up in front of City Hall.  There were no traffic problems.
 City Hall
 A reminder that Australia was part of the British Empire
Anglican Church
 ANZAC War Memorial
 Street Art
 We don't normally do food pictures, but we ate at the Pig & Whistle on the Queen Street Mall and got the chicken and beef sliders.  The presentation was cute, and so we include it.  And the food was good.
 View from the Victoria Bridge over the Brisbane River

Every city with aspirations has to have a big Ferris Wheel
 Brisbane Botanical Garden

 A Turkish pine grown from seeds brought back from Gallipoli



Brisbane is another city we could live in, although we'd have to go to the suburbs as the city center is just a little too big and crowded, even on days not celebrating Chariots. 









3 comments:

Dave / Cynthia Bradley said...

dave got the church's identity wrong...he remembered "Anglican" and it was "Albert Street Uniting Church." Somewhere there are Methodists swooning because their church was mistaken for the Church of the King...The Anglican....sorry Methodists!

Erin said...

Had to laugh at the comment about the church. Thanks for the pic of the pine tree ... we'll know now what to look for. If you care to see the one at the Lone Pine Cemetery in Gallipoli, here's a pic from my visit there in 2008 (https://eenusa.smugmug.com/Europe/Turkey-2008/Gelibolu-Second-Visit/i-ZRSxxsJ/A). The tree is a replacement for the one that was there at the time of the battle (it got all shot up and did not survive the battle ... more symbolism).

Dave / Cynthia Bradley said...

erin...have tried to see your Lone Pine but it is not loading. I'll try later, perhaps everyone new on board has logged on! thanks for the info!