Brisbane Day 1, Cycle 9 Day 6

We have been in Brisbane nearly 24 hours and we are “suitably impressed”. We are staying in a hotel in the CBD only about 200 metres from the major shopping precinct which we have visited 3 times today – for breakfast, for lunch and to buy an umbrella (unfortunately it is showery, so we have tried to keep under shelter).

This is probably more walking than I have done in months. I have needed lots of sit downs, but have managed quite well. There are lots of lovely colonial buildings here. One of the most impressive is the Old Treasury Building, which is now a casino. We are thinking we might venture into it one evening – probably not tonight, though.

Another lovely building is City Hall. It is closed for renovations at the moment, but the façade is lovely. It is interesting that Brisbane has a City Hall when all the other capital cities have Town Halls.


More rain is forecast for tomorrow, so we are planning on visiting South Bank where there are lots of museums, so we won’t have too much umbrella time.

We are both struck by how much smoking goes on. There are people standing outside every building with cigarettes in hand, though it seems to be banned in indoor areas. Smoking seems much more prevalent than at home in Perth on the other side of the continent (3709 km or 2503 miles according to the display on the plane’s information display as we landed).