This entry was posted on 3/27/2007 6:11 AM and is filed under Australia.
Brisbane is the capital of Queensland and about a two
hour flight from Pt. Douglas. We decided to stop here on our way
to Melbourne. We flew Virgin Blue Airlines. It's very easy
to fly anywhere in Australia. Every city has several "Flight
Centres" where you can walk in any day and buy a one way flight to any
city in Australia. There's no advantage to buying your ticket 3
weeks in advance or even buying a round trip ticket. Here you can
even buy a ticket easily for same day traveling.
Couldn't resist this photo of the loo at Virgin Blue Airlines in Brisbane.
Brisbane
reminded us of a small version of Sydney. It has a beautiful
river, a nice bridge and a Botanic Garden that is feeling the
results of the drought. Too bad they can't siphon from the river
to give it some much needed water.
These are the fabulous
mandrake trees that grow in many different parts of this city.
Their outside growing root systems are truly fantastic.
Here's a shot of part of the river and the bridge.
And a shot of the river and bridge at night.
We'll
remember this city because it's the place where we were able to
successfully extend our visas without having to leave the
country. Here's the beautiful building that housed the
immigration department. Interestingly, we had stopped to take a
photograph of it because we loved the way they integrated the
landscaping with the structure. Funny that it turned out to be
the building that we were looking for.
We
took some beautiful walks around the river. One of the walks took
us on a floating walkway that would bounce with the wakes from the
passing ferries.
Our walk also took us by these tall, statuesque buildings along the riverfront.
Another
of our walks along the river showed us this manmade beach with a
swimming lagoon that was open to the public for swimming and sun
bathing.
There were some beautiful buildings in the neighborhood that we really admired for their colors and architectural design.
There was also a green box building on the far right end of this street too.
This Customs House had a magnificent rock wall in front of it.
There
were also some interesting sculptures in the city. This one was
probably not a sculpture, but rather some kind of industrial form that
we found very beautiful. It was behind a fence in an industrial
area and we're offering a prize to anyone who may know what it is used
for.
This gorgeous huge fly was in the middle of a median strip in front of the bus station.
This very tall sculpture was in front of a local coffee shop. There were many other giant sculptures throughout the city.
This
magnificent arbor went on for blocks and blocks. It was covered
with many gorgeous bouganvilla vines and the effect was fabulous.
And
this was actually a real bug posing for us on the river
bridge. Reminded us of "Pan's Labyrinth". If you have
not yet seen this movie, definitely go soon. It was great.
One of the best parts of Brisbane were the 2 restaurants we went
to. See the next blog for details and mouth watering photos.
