Bob:

The first thing being, as usual, breakfast, we walked over to the Queen Street shopping area, a pedestrian mall about 2 blocks long in central Brisbane, and found a food court where I had French toast and Monika an omelet. Buying some groceries to cover lunch and dinner at a Coles grocery store that seemed to be similar in price and selection to a typical Woolworth store, we hauled it all back to our room.

Deciding to stay another day to give ourselves time to set up the next leg of our trip, we walked to Roma Street train station to get tickets back to Sydney. With that date and time set, we backtracked to an internet cafe where we let Neville and Lyn know about our return plans. Returning to our hotel room for lunch, we finally decided to try a driving trip up the coast rather than a train pass as the Queensland train system did not offer a pass with the same flexibility as the New South Wales Backtrekker pass. So we called up Europcar to rent a vehicle for the next morning. After all our chores were finally done, we had some free time to walk around Brisbane. We immediately took off to see the riverside area that looked rather pretty from the viewpoint of our hotel room window; the view had been tantalizing us all day.

Monika:

Bob:

Following Turbot Street down to the Brisbane River, we turned left toward the graceful span of the Victoria Bridge that crosses over to the south bank. Once across the river, we curled underneath the bridge and followed a very nice riverside promenade. On our right was the green strip of the South Bank Parklands with the Center for the Performing Arts behind it. Our first surprise on the walk was an authentic Nepalese pagoda, apparently built in 1988 for an exposition. The temple carvings looked both Buddhist and Hindu to me, and the workmanship was absolutely gorgeous.

Monika:

Bob:

From the pagoda, we followed the boardwalk just inside the riverfront promenade as it wound through nicely landscaped tropical trees, shrubs and reflecting ponds. We shortly reached a small park with a assemblage of whimsical fountains, timed to go off in some random sequence. The water spouts and splashes from the fountains glistened brilliantly in the afternoon sun, a pretty effect. I suspect those fountains would also be nicely cooling on a hot summer's day, but we were there in cooler weather so we weren't tempted to leap in!

Monika:

Bob:

Continuing around the "S" curve of the river along south bank, we were rewarded with great views of the Brisbane city skyline and an occasional glimpse of the "CityCat" catamaran ferries that crisscross the river. As the river arched back to the north, we encountered another boardwalk that passed through a tiny nature preserve, and then a rugged cliff where local folks were practicing rock climbing. One couple had full climbing harnesses along with belaying lines, but another guy was trying his hand at scaling the cliff without any kind of extra equipment, which seemed daunting to me.

Monika:

Bob:

We probably should have turned right on Thornton Street to get directly to the southern entrance of Story Bridge, but not knowing that we continued on and then had to backtrack couple of blocks to get to the stairway that allowed access to the bridge. Story Bridge itself is a pretty latticework of steel girders that spans the Brisbane River in a North-South direction. I saw people doing a "bridge walk" up and over the top of the bridge, but for me just walking along feeling the bridge shake beneath me whenever trucks passed by was sufficient excitement!

As it was dusk by this point, we eschewed the option of following the path on the north bank of the river back past the Botanical Gardens and instead cut back straight into the Central Business District on Adelaide Street. The eternal flame at the ANZAC war memorial was burning brightly in the dark, and from there we walked down Adelaide Street to the City Hall, which was quite nicely illuminated at night. We closed the loop back to the IBIS Hotel, had dinner, and retired for the night.

Monika: