Brisbane City

Our first day of overcast weather so we took the train into the big smoke, Brisbane City.  For the last few days, while the weather has been so lovely,  we've been enjoying walking a lot of the coastal tracks and paths around the Redlands Coast, there's so much to explore!

At Oyster Point we came across a cool little fort some local kids had made in the bush.

A famous grand old lady, an icon in pub history!

There are any number of cafes along the waterfront promenades, you're spoiled for choice. 

So with light showers forecast for today we set off for the city. We hopped on the train at the Birkdale station and in about 40 minutes  we were in the centre of Brisbane city, easie peasie.

Just down from Central Station is Anzac Square and memorial gardens.

We then wandered through the city to the botanical gardens. The city was full of people buzzing about in shops and cafe's and there's any number of fancy schmancy shops.

We found a local coffee roaster to support as opposed to the numerous Starbucks coffee shops everywhere.

Not so sure what the strawberry coffee roast would taste like but our latte's were spot on. Fortified, we made for the gardens.

There's construction everywhere! Some pretty cool buildings popping up. The gardens feel like they are on the edge of the city and they run down to the river, so they are super accessible to the city office workers which is good.

The gardens are in immaculate condition and so pretty. On a sunny day they must be full of office folks at lunch time.  We walked to the rivers edge through the gardens and found a water ferry to travel up river to the south bank.

They don’t call it the River City for nothing. Brisbane is home to the longest river in south east Queensland.

There's something special about seeing a city from the water, the perspective of the buildings against the sky and the water...just lovely even on an overcast day.

The grand old buildings seem

 dwarfed by the skyscrapers.

The little hopper ferries had limited stops along  the river as many of the commuter piers are being strengthened or replaced after a massive flood in February, the third big flood in recent years.

We hopped off our ferry at South Bank and wandered through the gorgeous paths and plantings to the Exhibition Centre and then on to MOMA.  The South Bank development is fantastic, gardens, cafes, even a city beach and pool and in summer it hosts many events for the public to enjoy. Today rain threatened so we'll have to come back another day.

Even with a smattering of raindrops the river path was lovely. This city sure maximises it's waterways with bike paths,  footbridges, sculpture and great lookout points.

There looks to be a huge casino being built on one side of the river with a new footbridge across the river being built.... not yet joined up.

The Museum of Modern Art was interesting.  A fantastic building with large, airy galleries but quite a few were closed as exhibitions were being changed. 

We made our way back to Central Station across a river  footbridge.

There's quite a lot of public art as you wander about through the streets. 

We couldn't skip seeing City Hall so found our way there.

City Hall was built between 1920 and 1930 at a cost of almost a million pounds and at the time it was the second largest construction project in Australia, second only to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. 

It is located adjacent to King George Square and has a terrific neo classical facade, I bet it's stunning inside, have to save that exploration for another city visit. 

Time to get the train back to the Redlands Coast. A fun day in the river city. It felt really buzzy and everyone along the river paths and in the galleries and cafe's looked to be happy and enjoying the city....do they put something in the water here :)

Yellow Bougainvillea! So pretty.