Southbank and the City

The last few days we have been making forays into different areas of the city. On Sunday we took in the sights and sounds of South Bank and had lunch after wandering around for fifteen minutes looking for the kebob shop. The air was a bit too cool to seriously consider a swim, so we went to the Queensland Museum to learn a bit about the areas history. We continued our tour with a walk through the mangroves and a coffee in the Botanical Gardens before taking the City Cat back up river to the train station and home to Sherwood.

On Monday, Emilie, a new Alliance Francaise intern who will be staying with for a while, arrived. She and her "director" had brought pastries, so we had a lovely morning tea out on the veranda. Then, Michelle, Emilie and I all went into the Central Business District to experience the bustle of Queen Street Mall. The number of shops and cafes always blows me away. Pretty much every chain store know to man is represented there and then there are the specialty shops as well. Sometimes it's a bit of sensory overload for me. We briefly stopped by the AF to show Emilie where she would be working. Then a stroll through Roma Street Gardens brought us back into a state of Zen like calm before we hopped onto a train packed with Brisbane Bronco AFL (that's Australian Football League - Aussi Rules of course.

Unfortunately, Michelle is stuck with a crazy sister whose idea of fun includes 35 km bike rides. So along with Zena, another bike crazed individual, we rode out to New Farm via the famous "floating bikeway". It's actually a great way to see Brisbane and not all that hard of a ride once you get past the hills around the University of Queensland.

More adventures are in store, and I'll try to get Michelle to write a posting.