Today we went sight-seeing and the attached pictures are testimony to that. That involved a lot of walking. And in between the walks went went furniture shopping at Brisbane's IKEA. We love IKEA, but on this occasion we were mainly buying flat-packs for Dot's good friend, Jane, in Armidale whence we head tomorrow assuming that the RAV4 can haul the load up the mountain.
And tonight we meet up Anne and John Dryburgh (and maybe some of their children) for an evening meal. Anne and I are either second cousins or first cousins once removed, whatever the correct description is. Simply, Anne and I share the same great-grandmother. My mother and Maurice, Anne's father, were first cousins. Maurice, who is now in his 90s, lives in Auckland and both Anne and John were Kiwi residents until they shifted to Brisbane a year or so ago when John landed an accounting job there after losing his job in Auckland - I presume a casualty of the GFC. I've met Anne in Auckland, but not on this side of the ditch.
We are staying in a motel on Kangaroo Point, a high promontory that funnels the Route from Armidale, Melbourne and Sydney in to Brisbane's CBD. Just up the road is the famous Story Bridge, the city's version of Sydney's Harbour Bridge and that bridge features in some of the coming photos. The Brisbane River, which is quite large as you'll see meanders through the city carving in apart through a series of sweeping bends. Our motel is surrounded on both sides be the river, which does a 180 degree turn under the Storey Bridge.
Any, on to the pictures. When I first saw Brisbane 40 years ago, it was regarded as a large country town - with little in the way of high-rise buildings. The intervening time has changed things somewhat. The first picture shows the modern city and at the right hand side is the Storey Bridge. The picture faces north and the river flows away from us.
The second picture looks across the river to the western and lower part of the CBD, with the botanical gardens just at the water's edge.
The last of the trilogy also faces north towards the bridge, but was taken due east of the first photo. The water is now flowing towards us having done its 180 degree turn.
Brisbane has a very pleasant location and is, like Rome, sited amid a large number of hills. The fourth photo looks north-west and show this setting.
Another growing feature of the city is the rise of a large number of apartment buildings along the river banks. Dot and I were discussing whether we might move to Brisbane rather than Sydney at some stage and the city is certainly attractive enough to make that a possibility. However, Brisbane is even further from Canberra than Armidale and, at 1250 km distance (780 miles), is a long way to drive! Perhaps Bec will move north some day soon. She used to work in Caloundra a short distance away
Last, and not least, Brisbane is easy to navigate. In fact, if we lived in an apartment alongside the river we could use one of these to go shopping or the concert hall or the various art galleries and museums! The CityCats depart every five minutes or so for the city centre.
By the way, did you notice the absence of sunshine and the leaden clouds. Brisbane, like Armidale has had a cool and soaking wet summer. The word cool is relative. The temperatures during out visit have been a pleasant 28C even though the rain bucketed down yesterday
AS
No comments:
Post a Comment