Christmas in Brisbane

21 Wednesday Dec 2016

Posted by Lyn in Australia, Christmas in Brisbane

Tags

australia, Brisbane, Brisbane River, Christmas, City Hall, CityCat, King George Square, Photography, story bridge, travel

After living in Brisbane for many years, I finally went it in to the city to see the Christmas lights, in particular the City Hall Lights Spectacular.

We took the City Cat Ferry from Southbank Parklands down the river towards the mouth of the river. What a great way to see the city. As day turned in to evening, it was magic riding down the Brisbane River watching the city lights and bridge lights come on and the changes in the vistas.

The Christmas coloured lights on the Story Bridge were amazing

20161212_193605

There was plenty of room on board the CityCat either inside or outside, up the front or out the back. We leisurely cruised zig zagging across the river with a few stops on the way, dropping off and picking up other passengers.

??????????????

There are many interesting stops along the way where you can get off. We finally chose Bretts Wharf to disembark and then we took another CityCat back up the river, where we finally disembarked at North Quay in the CBD.

I absolutely loved getting on the City Cat close to dusk and riding it up the Brisbane River. The CityCat Ferry is the ideal way to see Brisbane. Cheap, Clean, Comfortable and Fast. A must do if you are visiting Brisbane.

After stopping for dinner, we then made our way to City Hall in King George Square. We walked through the Queen Street Mall to see the beautiful shop windows decorated with Christmas scenes.

King George Square -Daytime

Finally, we arrived at the City Hall Christmas lights display. The Light Spectacular features an exquisite, animated Christmas story. This year’s story is a playful, Aussie take on The Night Before Christmas. Set in a suburban backyard during a hot, Brisbane summer, it’s bursting with whimsical adventure, cuddly creatures and plenty of fun. City Hall’s clock tower sounds nightly to signal the start of each show.

??????????????

The light show is quite short, about 10 minutes, so we stayed and enjoyed it several times. It was a wonderful festive atmosphere and not very crowded at all.

20161212_213454

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful festive season. Thank you for all your comments, and likes and support over the past 12 months.

Buon Natale

Colleges Crossing Recreational Reserve

03 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by Lyn in Colleges Crossing, Queensland

≈ 20 Comments

Tags

Brisbane, Brisbane River, Chuwar, Colleges by the River cafe, Colleges Crossing, Colleges Crossing Recreation Reserve, Ipswich, Park, Photography, River, travel

This is a small post mostly for my Brisbane followers. I found this delightful place a couple of days ago and just wanted to share it with you. A friend and I went for lunch to the charming little café in this park. This café and park is doggie friendly so Buddy was able to join us.
Colleges Crossing Recreation Reserve is a popular picnic and tourist spot on the Brisbane River at Chuwar near Ipswich. This reserve features a lookout, fun and engaging playground with shade sails and a nature based play area for kids, a lake for fishing and kayaking and a coffee shop with spectacular views over the lake. There are plenty of covered picnic tables and chairs, free BBQs and public toilets.

The playground has plenty to keep the kids occupied, with a fort, climbing rock, musical wall, swing, fun sway boat, balancing beams, spinning seats, tree log tunnel, stepping-stones and frog sculptures.

There is also a large grassed area for sports and walking tracks and bike/scooter paths that will have the children happily entertained and exploring for hours We chatted with the lady who runs the cafe who told us that the park and their cafe have been destroyed twice by floods in the past few years however each time they have bounced back and re established the Colleges by the River cafe. The menu has a good selection, the coffee was excellent and the service very good. After we lunch we strolled down to the river where we sat in the sunshine lapping up the beautiful sunshine and listening to the birds.

This was a magnificent winters day in Brisbane. Although the café was busy there were not many people in the park area when we were there but I could imagine it would be extremely busy at weekends.

Exploring Brisbane on foot

11 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Lyn in Brisbane on Foot, Queensland

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

Anzac Square, Botanical Gardens, Brisbane, Brisbane arcade, Brisbane city hall, Brisbane River, City Hall, Government house, Greeters. Brisbane Greeters, King George Square, Photography, Queesland University of Technology, QUT, travel

After over 20 years of living in Brisbane I thought it was time that I learned some more about my city. Although I have been in to the city many times I have never actually taken the time to explore it.

So, I booked a tour with Brisbane Greeters. It was by accident that I recently learnt of this wonderful program here in Brisbane. I contacted them and organized to do a walking tour of Brisbane precinct. I met with my guide Bruce, at King George Square outside Brisbane city hall. I was excited to do this tour however I was not prepared for how good it was.

Lucky me, I was the only “tourist” for this guided tour of our city. We started our tour in the square discussing Bruce’s plans for the tour. He made some suggestions and then with my input he customised the tour to fully suit me. Bruce gave me a brief overview of the history of Brisbane before we headed off.

We started our tour in the City Hall. City Hall is considered to be one of Brisbane’s finest buildings. The building has been used for royal receptions, pageants, orchestral concerts, civic greetings, flower shows, school graduations and political meetings.

City Hall does offer its own guided tours of this lovely building so my visit with Bruce was certainly enough to whet my appetite to return one day for a tour. In the meantime, from Bruce, I learned that the white marble staircase in the entrance is made using marble from Carrara in Italy, the bell tower was inspired by St Mark’s in Venice and the dome was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.

From the city hall we walked over to the Brisbane Arcade which is a heritage listed shopping arcade and was built in 1923. Definitely one of if not the nicest shopping arcade in Brisbane consisting of beautifully designed shops offering high-end jewellery, clothing, antiques and much more.

Our tour continued up Queen St to North Quay to the heritage listed Treasury building, which now houses Brisbane’s Casino.

The tour included many of Brisbane’s original buildings – the commissary which is home to the Royal Historical Society of Brisbane, and Old Government house which is located on the grounds of Queensland University of Technology at Gardens Point.

The QUT campus is home to public arts venues, museums, top fitness facilities, and our state-of-the-art Science and Engineering Centre.

We stopped at the Pantry café on campus for our well-earned lunch and coffee. After our small rest we headed off through the botanical gardens which is on the river and which Qut is attached to.

We had many stops along the way to our destination of St Stephens Cathedral the heritage listed cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of the city of Brisbane.

I learned from Bruce that part of the stone used in the construction of this magnificent building was taken from Kangaroo point just across the river.

Kangaroo Point

Bruce’s wealth of information was fantastic. He is very passionate about Brisbane and was so informative the entire time.

I have been on many walking tours around the world but this would definitely be the best guided walking tour I have ever done, and, it was free. Bruce informed me that there are many cities around the world offering this personalized free service.

I later googled Greeters Organisation and discovered there are in excess of 90 cities world-wide offering this fabulous service including several cities in Italy.

Eat Street Markets – Brisbane

04 Tuesday Feb 2014

Posted by Lyn in Brisbane, Eat Street Markets

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Asian, Brisbane, Brisbane River, Chinese, Chitty Bahn Bahn, Cruise Terminal, Eat Street Markets, France, Germany, Hamilton, International cuisine, italy, Jake and Elle, Japanese, pop up restaurants, pop up stalls, Singapore, South America, Turkey

I take my hat off to Brisbane and its latest creation – The Eat Street Markets. Has anyone heard of the Eat Street Markets? Well It seems that most of my friends have not heard of them but judging by the amount of people who were there on Saturday night it appears that many of Brisbane’s residents know of this fabulous new venture.

The reason I know about the markets is from when we were on the cruise in November when Jake and Elle from My Kitchen Rules told us about them. Jake and Elle have a “pop up restaurant” called Chitty Bahn Bahn.

These exciting new Markets is something never seen before in Brisbane. They consist of old specially designed shipping containers which look like they have all been painted blue.

We wandered around the “pop up stalls” and the “pop up restaurants”. There are plenty of places to sit as there are funky seats and tables everywhere. It is a great place to mingle, listen to the live bands, have a drink at one of the several pop up bars, enjoy a snack or a complete meal. Anyone and everyone’s taste can be catered for as there is cuisine from all over the world. There are more choices on offer than I have ever experienced in any other market type venue anywhere in the world.

It was a fantastic night and just so easy. Imagine sitting by the Brisbane River enjoying an inexpensive meal and catching the nice cool breezes. We were spoilt for choice as there were so many delights from Asian, South American, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Turkey, the list is endless. We chose the Japanese pizza, mostly from curiosity and even though it was yummy it was a little too rich for me. I also had my first potato slinkie, very nice . They would go great with a cold beer or glass of wine. I then ended with a gelato. The Italian Connection.

I will be going back to these markets often and eat my way around the entire markets. It will take a very long time but it will be a lot of fun.

The “pop up shops” also offer a wonderful browse and include: herbal soaps, jewellery, clothing, art, flower arrangements, homewares, and much much more.

There were plenty of families with young children, babies in strollers etc and doggies on leads. This is a great place to stroll offering entertainment and eateries that would appeal to any age and, a tribute to Brisbane to have a funky venue like this

There was plenty of free parking nearby and the markets are a short stroll from the Portside cruise terminal.

These amazing Asian style bustling markets are only open on Friday and Saturday nights and offer a great night out for all ages. They are a must see.

Brisbane River – Queensland

21 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by Lyn in Australia, Brisbane, Brisbane River

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

Brisbane, Brisbane River, Brisbane wheel, city cats, city hopper, southbank, story bridge, Tenerife

Sometimes we forget what we have in our own back yard. When I have friends visiting from overseas and I take them out to “show off” our city, my eyes are opened as I am reminded as to how much we have to offer right here in Brisbane.

Currently I have my friend staying with me from the states so each day I play tour director.

Today we chose to view the city of Brisbane from the river, the Brisbane River which flows through the city and out to Moreton Bay. We could never see as much from the car or even from walking.

It was a perfect day with the best weather which it usually is in Spring time here in Qld. The days are beautiful but not too hot.

Right in the heart of the city the river is lined with office buildings and residential apartments.

The Brisbane Wheel and Performing arts complex

As you leave the city you see more high rise residential buildings and also beautiful houses.

We started our day on the free city ferry called The City Hopper which travels between the west end of the city to the east end.

The City Hopper

City Hopper

Then it was on to one of the city cats for a faster trip further down the river to Tenerife where we left the cat to explore the old wool shed area. We chose this area as it reminds my friend of New York’s meat packing area. Up until recently it was industrial area with historical buildings but now it is a very trendy area with inner city apartments and townhouses, cafes, restaurants and bars.

Cruising along the river viewing our scenic city is a relaxing and affordable way to take in the sights. You can hop on and off where ever you wish and create your own great day out.

Story Bridge

One of the lovely sights is Customs House. A beautifully restored building owned and operated by the University of Queensland. In here you will find exquisite boardrooms, a stunning ballroom, seminar rooms and a lovely restaurant.

Customs House

The Story Bridge is a very “pretty” suspension bridge which was built in the 1930’s. You can join organised bridge climbs on this bridge and apparently have amazing views of Brisbane.

On the road under the Story Bridge

Brisbane – Queensland, Australia

22 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by Lyn in Australia, Brisbane, Queensland

≈ 24 Comments

Tags

australia, Brisbane, Brisbane city, Brisbane River, cit cats, city ferry, city hopper, Kapsali's restaurant, Queensland, South bank

This week I am writing about my home city. I have friends staying with me who are from Hawaii and every day we go out and about exploring.

I always see Brisbane through different eyes when I am showing it off to International Visitors.

We have been blessed with perfect weather. It has stormed at night but the days are glorious. Autumn in Australia is a very special time of year and my favourite time.

One of our days out was to the south side of the Brisbane River where we parked the car and took the ferry to South Bank which over looks the river towards the city.

The ferry we took is the city hopper and is a free service travelling up and down the river.

In South Bank we stopped for a coffee at one of the many eateries, before heading off to ride on the Brisbane Wheel.

This is one of the largest ferris wheels in the world and was such a great experience. I recommend it as an easy way to have more understanding of the city and surrounds.