February 11, 2017

   When we awoke, the ship was approaching the working commercial port at the mouth of the Brisbane River to dock since it is too big to negotiate the river to the city center. During breakfast in dining room, a tugboat assisted the ship with positioning alongside the dock. A quick walk on the Deck 5 promenade revealed a hot sunny day already, temperature was 27 C at 8 a.m.  The predicted high was 38 C and the same is predicted for tomorrow!  After breakfast, we got ready to pick up the Leisurely Brisbane excursion stickers in the Aurora Theatre by 8:30 a.m.  Bob and Maureen are also on this tour which required three 50 passenger buses to accommodate everyone.

   There is a shuttle bus into the city center with a cost of $25 US for the round trip. The currency on the ship is US dollars. If you take an excursion including Brisbane, your excursion sticker allows you a complimentary ride back to the ship, should you decide to stay in Brisbane after your tour. 

    Brisbane, in Queensland State, is situated on the East Coast of Australia. It, like Sydney, was also a former British penal colony. It is the third most popular cruise ship port in Australia and the third largest city in Australia.  The Australian explorer, John Oxley, arrived at the mouth of the Brisbane River in 1823 and was guided inland along the snaking river by three Irish ship wrecked sailors, who had lived with the Aborigines for three years. Oxley was taken to the Aborigine village along one of the bows of the river.  Today in the city center the streets running north and south are names of men, while the east/west street names are women’s names, mostly British Kings and Queens.  American General McArthur had his Pacific headquarters in Brisbane in the 1940s.

   A popular excursion is to Koala Bear Sanctuary where 130 rescued koalas are cared for.  Guests can hold the koalas and even be photographed with them.

    Our excursion was a tour of Brisbane. We passed St John’s Cathedral which was constructed between 1880 and 2009.  It was completely financed by donations, so construction stopped several times in order to raise more money.  We passed the ANZAC Memorial with its eternal flame, completed in 1930 as a memorial to the Australian and New Zealand men and women who lost their lives in World War One.

   In the city center there is a mixture of late 19th century and modern architecture, including the state parliament.  The former Treasury Building is now the casino. Brisbane has a China Town with Chinese architecture influenced buildings. There is a three block precinct for shoppers where no cars are allowed with many high end stores as well as H&M and cafés.  There are also two botanic gardens, one of the gardens is right on the river bank and is washed away every 30 to 40 years.  The last two floods were in 1974 and 2011.  The damage in 1974 was more extensive than in 2011. Because of the flood cycle, there is a second botanic garden containing sub-tropical vegetation that is not subject to being periodically washed away.

  The Mount Coot-tha Lookout, the city’s highest point, gave a panoramic landscape stretching as far as the ocean port, on Moreton Bay, which was a 30 minute drive to the city center from the port. The distant ridges of the Great Dividing Range, known as the Glasshouse Mountains, can also be seen.  There was free Wi-Fi and Larry was able to post the written blog entries for boarding in Sydney and our first day at sea during the 20 minute viewpoint stop. We then were driven to the Brisbane River’s South Bank, where the 60 meter high ‘Wheel of Brisbane” is located and there are shaded walkways with a rainforest walk. We had 45 minute to enjoy the walkway and watch the City Cat Ferry move its passengers along the river or see Kookaburra Queen Cruises paddle-wheeler boat cruise down Brisbane River.  There were lots of people cooling off at the swimming pool or the lagoon with a sand beach in the + 35 C sunshine. It is not safe to swim in the ocean or river due to crocodiles and jelly fish.  Near the food court by the swimming pool  was a several hundred meter trellis covered in purple bourgonvilla flowers    In the 45 minutes, we strolled the walks the temperature on the Australian Broadcasting building the thermometer rose 2 degrees. This area was the site of the 1988 Brisbane World Expo. 

    The final stop before returning to the ship was to drop off any passengers wanting to stay in Brisbane and take the shuttle bus back later.  We explored the area of the shopping precinct to find somewhere with Wi-Fi  to check emails on the laptop and to add photos to the narrative of the last two entries.  We had chicken burritos for lunch at the food court of the Queen Street Mall, but could not get connected to the Wi-Fi there or three other locations.  We walked over to the ANZAC Memorial a few streets away in order to catch the ship’s shuttle bus back to the ship.    Steps 9748.    We were back mid-afternoon and found that the port building had a good Wi-Fi signal and posted to the photos to the blog.

To cool off we went to Deck 11 to make our own soft serve ice cream cones available in vanilla or chocolate flavours.  Then we returned to the stateroom to read and write this blog.

  We have a permanent reservation at dinner to sit with Bob and Maureen. They could not hear the commentary on their bus, since the people behind them talked in their language while the soft spoken driver gave his narrative, didn’t leave the passengers much time at stops and their driver took the bus to the airport, as far as they were concerned to use up time. Their driver also did not offer the opinion to be dropped off in the city center before the bus returned to the ship.

   Tonight’s dinner appetizers chosen were a crevice of shrimp, scallops, red onion and cucumber; New England clam chowder and chilled mango & pineapple soup.  The entrées chosen were Grilled Salmon with roasted potato, steamed carrots and broccoli or Chicken Kiev with whipped potato, steamed carrots and broccoli.  Our coffee was accompanied with Pavlova in a light strawberry and kiwi fruit sauce.

   After dinner, the Traffle Duo played dance music at two venues.  The second venue they played ballroom dance music. There was also pre-recorded ballroom dance music in the Colony Club before the evening show. Tonight the Production show including the ship’s dancers and singers cast was Piano Man featuring songs by Billy Joel, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Harold Arlen and Barry Manilow.

   Final Steps 11,666.