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| The garden |
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| Our new addition |
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The journey continues......
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Welcome
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We did not realize this, but the Amsterdam had to travel about 5 hours up the river to get to the big city of Brisbane. Brisbane is also a new port for us, as the world cruise has not stopped here for several years, we understand.
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| The Brisbane River |
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| Downtown Brisbane |
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Riverside apartments
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| Building more highrises |
The population of this city is 2.1 million, although you would never guess that back in the 1800's, Brisbane was a penal colony like Sydney. Today, the lucky citizens get to enjoy a balmy subtropical climate with summer temps under 90 degrees and winter temps in the 60's. The centerpiece of the city is the Brisbane River, which snakes through the downtown and suburb areas. A great way to see the city is by taking the CityCat ferry. Someone told us it was free, but we are not sure of that.
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Bunkering fuel
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There are many things to do and see here in the city or outside the city. Surrounded with many parks and gardens, the downtown area has a huge mall with every store you can think of. Within walking distance of the mall are many museums, art galleries, theaters, the state library, performing arts center, and Customs House Gallery, to mention a few. There are too many restaurants and cafes to mention.
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| Amsterdam docked |
Take a ride out of town, and you can find the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Mount Coot-tha, beaches, rainforest, and mountains.
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Brisbane terminal
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What did we do? Well with a complimentary shuttle to downtown, we joined the bus around 11am and headed to the malls and shops. Since we had cleared the ship in Sydney, we did not have to do that again here in Brisbane. The ride took us over the river across a bridge to Elizabeth Street, right about where the Queen Street Mall began. This reminded us of downtown Sydney, with highrise buildings full of shops and boutiques....so many it was hard to count them.
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| Unusual architecture |
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| One of many river bridges |
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| Historical building |
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| Cathedral of St. Stephen |
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| Downtown buildings |
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| Modern |
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| Signs of Valentine's Day all over the city |
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| Balcony |
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| A food court down under the street |
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| The start of many businesses |
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| Queen Street Mall |
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| Innovative desig |
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| The older building have all the charm |
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| Looking up the river |
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The Wheel of Brisbane
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| OK, where are we? |
We were shopping for some very simple items we needed for our room, which led us to Target, a pharmacy, Woolworths (the local supermarket), and a shop called the Reject Store. Sounds funny,but they have tons of household items that are difficult to find, and the price is right.
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| Our favorite store |
We came across what we perceived as a city-employed local guide asking if we needed help with directions. We found it strange that she admitted to us that she could not read maps, such as the one we were carrying. What she meant was that she could not read, period. Anyway, she did point out some local icons, then added that this area was non-smoking. If we were caught smoking, there was a $300. fine. Caught littering? Well that was another $300. fine. And if you were late in paying that fine, another $150. was added on top of it. Was all of this really true? We never did investigate it, but decided as we walked away that this gal was a street person, whose bottom line was to ask for money after giving directions. The fact that she was wearing a bright green vest had thrown us off, and we assumed she was legitimately working for the city.
We ran into friends Margaret and Keith, who had just walked across the Victoria Bridge to visit the Queensland Art Museum. They spoke highly of their time they spent there, so we decided to check it out, since it was close by, air-conditioned, and free.
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| Performing Arts Centre |
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| Notice the squid on the museum |
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| Art Gallery |
We were not disappointed either, although we do not always choose to go to museums. This was an exception. The artwork was fabulous, but the building also housed some pretty elaborate fountains...indoor and outdoor.
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| Statues outside the gallery |
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| Heading for the museum |
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| Inside pond |
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Also, an inside fountain
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| Outdoor fountain |
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| Pond and fountain for the birds |
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| Very well done |
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Great place to relax
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Located next to the Art Gallery was the Museum & Sciencenter, which was right up our alley.
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| This was the best visit |
Several levels in this museum housed examples of Australian animals, reptiles, and birds, not just from modern days, but what existed back milleniums ago. In the reptile display was a glass enclosure with a young, extremely lime green-colored python.
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| Lime green python....we named him Monty |
There was a suggestion box for us to name him. Naturally the first name to come to our minds was "Monty", so we added that to the box.
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| A very old classic |
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| One of the largest eagles in the world |
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| Yes, this is real...run for your lives! |
We could have spent a lot of time here, but once again , the time had flown, and we needed to find a place for lunch soon. The last shuttle was leaving downtown at 4:30 pm, and we did not want to wait until the last bus.
There was a second floor restaurant in the Queen Street Mall by the name of Jo Jo's. Seeing that they advertised wood-fired pizza, we knew we had found a good spot.
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| Jo Jo's Restaurant with balcony dining |
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| Wines and desserts |
Today was not the day to be picky, since it was Valentine's Day as well as a Friday, where scores of the locals were out for lunch. Many of the restaurants and cafes operate in a different manner than those we have at home in California. It almost a fast-food type of service in that you order your food and beverages at the counter, pay for it, then the server delivers it to your assigned table. The manager had warned us that it was busy, and we may have a longer than usual wait. Hey, no problem for us, since it was great to sit down and watch the foot traffic down below in the mall.
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| Very happy for the cold beer |
Ice cold beers arrived in a short time, along with our margherita pizza, which was very good. Maybe not quite as tasty as the ones we had in Sydney, but still nice.
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| Freshly-baked margherita pizza |
Taking the bus back to the ship went quickly, as the traffic was moving along fine. At home, by 2 or 3pm, we would have been in bumper-to-bumper traffic with a ride that normally would take an hour turning into a 3 hour jaunt. Sailaway took place from 5:30 to 6:30pm, where hot appetizers had been promised.
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| Downtown on the river |
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| Not a lot of river traffic |
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| A very pretty city |
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| More historical buildings |
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| The balloon vendor |
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| A street artist |
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| Small bouquets were $35. each |
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| One dozen roses were $88. each |
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| Clocktower |
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| Flagpoles on Queen Street |
For some unknown reason, these treats rarely reach the guests at the back railing, as we and friends Bill & Marianne soon found out. We politely summoned the waiter to come back with his tray, and his indicated that he would fill it, and be back. Well, that never happened. Willie, the Beverage manager, happened to walk by all of us, and Bill mentioned the fact that all of us back here were being ignored.
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| Irving and the band |
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| A small crowd today |
With that, several waiters started to appear with pastry-wrapped sausages and sweet and sour chicken on skewers. This is the first sailaway that we have had such service since the beginning of the cruise. No, we would not starve without the appetizers, but if they advertise this, and they don't deliver, then the folks stop coming.
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| Two fellows dropping the lines |
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| There goes more lines |
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| Quick way to drop the lines |
Some of the newly-embarked Aussies were also not afraid to voice their opinion as Willie walked past them. If no one speaks up, then they do not know there is a problem.
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| Apartments have a nice view, until a ship comes and docks in front of them. |
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| Leaving the terminal |
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| More construction |
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| A local flea market |
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| One of many factories |
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| An oil refinery |
The wind had picked up, and by the time we left the dock, the crowd began to thin out. After all, it was Valentine's Day, and many people were off to dress for formal night.
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| Local river boat |
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| Sailboat |
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Another cool boat
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| Iconic Bridge |
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| Going under the bridge....barely |
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| Leaving the city behind |
It is unusual for a port day to fall on Valentine's Day, but it keeping with tradition, the formality of the evening remained.
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| Birds in flight |
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| An ibis in flight |
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A flock of river birds
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| Night falls upon the city |
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| And the ship as well |
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| Sun setting on the Brisbane River |
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| Notice the airplane |
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| This is cool |
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| The sun went down by 6:32pm |
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| Neat sunset |
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| A very hot sky |
By the way, when we got back to our room at 5pm, we had two single red roses on our pillows, along with boxes of Seattles Best candies. And Valentines cards from the Captain, hotel manager, and the crew.
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Valentine's gifts
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At dinner tonight, we had double company with arts and crafts teacher, Maureen, and Julie, the Human Resources officer for the crew, who has joined us many times on past cruises. The dining room was decked out in total red with hanging heart balloons and glitter moblies. What they could do without are the tiny red plastic hearts that are sprinkled over the center of the table. They end up everywhere....all over the seats, the floor, under the plates and glasses and all over our laps. Then there is a trail of them in the stairwells and on the stairs. Bet the room stewards just love the extra vacuuming.
Anyway, the top entree tonight was the grilled lamb chops, and our favorite dessert....the bomb. This was by special request, since the cappachino bombs have not been on the menu yet. These were not quite the same, however, since the chocolate shell was only half full of chocolate? ice cream. Then they were floating in a pool of coffee, on a decorated plate with strawberry sauce. Not everyone likes them, so Julie ordered a souffle, and three of us added a slice of watermelon pie. That is another favorite, which also showed up on the dessert menu for the first time tonight.
The Valentine Ball was held at 9:30pm in the Queens Lounge, so Julie, an officer, had to attend, even though she did not seem overly thrilled about going. She stalled until 9:50pm, and asked for our backup that she was being polite by staying with us instead. Can't say we blame her. We do not attend the balls, since they are always crowded and high-schoolish. What we did like, was pianist Debbie Bacon, who played her piano all throughout dinnertime from the center of the lower dining room. This was a "first" and we hope there were more positive compliments than not.
We have two days at sea on our way towards Cairns, our final stop in Australia.
Happy Valentines Day to all!
