After our stop in Cairns, we headed on farther south to Brisbane. I think we were all pleasantly surprised at how pretty and clean the city was. We stayed in a bit of a suburb slightly north and not in an AirBnb, but rather a family’s home. The kids were over the moon to have toys and books. We all but had to drag them out of the house to go do activities. Keali read five books the first couple of days we were there. This is the kid that hates to read books. It was quite nice to have a proper home to stay in. It was certainly more comfortable for everyone.
We kept busy in Brisbane. One day we went over to Mt Coot-tha and saw a beautiful view of the city.
The kids and Scott went hiking from there. I sat back a bit due to a nasty little skin infection from diving on one of my toes. They had a great time (much of which seemed to have been filled with petting dogs).
We also made a stop at the planetarium and watched a fantastic show on the moons of various planets. The kids were shocked to learn so much information from a 45 minute presentation (which mostly means I need to up my astronomy game in homeschool).
Another day we went to a koala sanctuary to see the native animals. This place was absolutely amazing. We were able to pet and feed kangaroos, hold a koala, and even see other native animals like the duck-billed platypus.
Petting a very soft and sleepy kangaroo
Holding a panda!
(For my animal friends, the koalas are only “worked” for 30 minutes per day so that they can still fulfill their 20 hour sleep schedule.) I was mostly impressed with the duck-billed platypus. I had no idea that they were venomous and moved about using electrolocation. Of course, it was the first time any of us had seen one in real life. Having assumed the holding of the koala would’ve been the highlight, I was a little surprised.
We ventured one day down to the Southbank which is essentially their Riverwalk.
Taxi boats running along the river
Parks along the Riverwalk
The city has done an particularly excellent job designing the space to include parks, splash pads, climbing areas, picnic areas, restaurants and bars. One of the more startling moments happened during lunch when the giant ibis cruised around the restaurant to pick up scraps.
It was considerably larger than the pigeons we are used to!
An interesting place we saw was an ice cream store that sold ice cream made with liquid nitrogen. It was fun watching them make the ice cream to order, but their masterpieces were even more impressive.
Lemon meringue ice cream made with liquid nitrogen (and browned with a torch)
It was a busy part of town with all the locals and tourists milling about. We enjoyed it so much we ended up going down there twice. Even the street performers were better than most others we had seen. Downtown Brisbane is a fun place to check out.
We were fortunate enough that the home we were staying in was around the corner from an impressive street market on Sundays.
A crowded but amazing street market in Mitchelton
We found everything from amazing food to great juices to even a poffertjes that reminded us of home.
Scott and I managed to sneak away to a Brisbane Bronco’s rugby game one night. We had a great time even though it ended up being a bit of an earlier evening than we were hoping for.
Date night! (With thanks to the nice woman next to us who reminded us of how rugby rules work)
After spending a week in Brisbane, it would be pretty easy to be talked into moving to Australia. It was safe, clean, beautiful, and even had really nice weather. The limiting factor would only be the cost of living there.
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