Friday, June 23rd: Only one week left to our trip--hard to believe how quickly three months goes by!!! The big news in Oz this morning is their World Cup Soccer Team's advance into the second round of the tournament for the first time in their history. They played Croatia to a 2 all draw, when Harry Kewell scored with about 10 minutes left to play. Next up: Italy on Monday afternoon (1am Tuesday here). Despite the chill in the apartment, we slept all right. Rick is up early (as usual), checks the laundry and realizes that we'll probably spend some time at the local laundromat to finish it. At least it isn't raining--and we will get through the entire day without seeing any rain and get some sun as a bonus!! The first order of business is to return the rental car. Tom has graciously offered to follow us and drive us back. He arrives right on time at 10:30 and, once the car is returned, we drop him off at his house. He's also offered to take us to the airport next Friday, so we agree to pick him up on the way to save time. We want to get the laundry out of the way first, and in the meantime, a little lunch wouldn't hurt. After a visit to the local shopping mall, we return to the apartment so Rick can get on the internet and figure out how we will get into the city. A daily ticket for the Translink system costs A$5 and allows unlimited trips on any of the trains, buses and ferries. This is a very good deal!!! Parking alone would cost a lot more. About 4pm, Rick goes out to find where the bus stops that will take us to the ferry. While he's at it, he visits the Morningside train station, finds a nice French restaurant that we'll try for dinner one night, and discovers that the Cantonese restaurant up the street has mongolian beef (his favorite). We have a simple dinner in tonight and are pleasantly surprised by a call from Dov and Rebecca.

Saturday, June 24th: WOW--two sunny days in a row! Our plan is to venture into the city and spend the day getting oriented. About 10:30, we're ready to walk to the train station. There are no attendants and the ticket machine doesn't take paper money. We're told that we can just ride, buy our ticket at Central Station (where we're heading), and show it upon exiting the station. We really love the public transportation system in Aussie cities. Since today is Saturday, we get the daily ticket for A$3.80!! Our first stop after our 20 minute train ride is the Tourist Office in Queen Street Pedestrian Mall where we pick up maps. There's a street market on the other side of the Brisbane River and Queen Street leads us to Victoria Bridge. Across the bridge and left several hundred meters, we find the market. It's a pretty typical crafts and flea market like we've seen everywhere since the Rocks in Sydney. After wandering for an hour, we have some lunch outdoors and watch the ibises walking on the tables searching for handouts. They are agressive and we watch one land on a table where four women are eating. The women screamed as the bird snatched some food right from the middle of their table and flew away. Since we're right at the river, we catch the City CAT ferry toward the University of Queensland. On the way, Rick's hat becomes a new home for the fish (the wind blows it right off his head). He's become attached to this hat (purchased in Adelaide) and now we'll have to see if we can find another one. Since the U of Q is the last stop, we just stay on board and return to the North Quay station. We stroll around Queen Street Mall (Rick finds a replacement hat--but it's not the same design) and we find a friendly Irish pub and enjoy black and tans (half Guiness Stout, half Harp Lager). Ultimately we decide that we'll take the ferry and bus back to Morningside. We get off at the Hawthorne stop and will have a 20+ minute wait for the bus. We're not sure that it ever came, because we think, since it's dark by now, taking the ferry back to the city will provide a nice view of the city lights. It does, and we enjoy a pasta dinner in town before returning to the apartment around 8:30pm. It's been a full day. We really like this city; if it were in the US, it would meet our needs for a retirement base.

Sunday, June 25th: Well, this is more like it--another sunny day!! We haven't had three in a row since WA. There's another market in the city near the Riverside complex. It's the most spread out market we've seen yet and it seems none of these vendors were on the other side of the river yesterday. While Rory is checking out the various booths, Rick finds a man selling bicycle seats--really! They are of a revolutionary design, actually two half seats. They're made in Italy and this is apparently the only place in Australia they're being sold. Rick would have bought one on the spot, but has no idea what his bike's post diameter is. He'll check when he gets home and perhaps order one over the Internet.

We had intended to take the free Botanic Gardens tour yesterday, but forgot about it, so today we'll try again. No such luck--they're not offered on Sundays or holidays.....maybe later in the week. Since we're in the gardens anyway, we might as well have lunch here. The Gardens Cafe is just the right spot (like the Cafe in Adelaide's gardens) for us to enjoy a light lunch of Thai chicken salad with bread and olives. Afterwards we'll follow a walking tour path past the Old Government House, Queensland University of Technology, and the Parliament House. The latter offers free tours, but we're too late for today--maybe when we come back for the Gardens tour..,.. The walk continues parallel to the river past the Mansions (6 elegant townhouses built in 1889), the Old Commissariat Store (built by convicts in 1829), the Treasury Casino (the old Treasury Building), and a guy spray painting a design on a utility box. (He was hired by the city at a rate of A$50 per box to transform them from eyesores to works of art.) After awhile we head back to Morningside via the train. We'll have a nice steak dinner in tonight. Tomorrow we plan to drive to Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast (south of Brisbane).

Monday, June 26th: What do you know?--another sunny day!! We're off to the Gold Coast, about 100k south of here. Our ultimate destination is Surfers Paradise, a stretch of beach overrun with high rise buildings and retail shops, much to the chagrin of Aussie purists. We are anticipating another Miami Beach; what we get is a mini-Miami only they speak English here. There are certainly plenty of skyscraping condos and office buildings, but the density isn't nearly what it is in Miami Beach. The beach itself is long, wide and composed of very fine white sand, almost the consistency of flour; and the beautiful water of the Pacific Ocean. It's seems a little wierd to have the Pacific on the east coast.... It's about noon when we get there and find a place to park. There isn't that much surf today, but there are plenty of surfers. We have heard about the "meter maids" of Surfers Paradise. Apparently the City Council voted several years ago to install metered parking (machines issue the paper tickets to be placed on the dashboard of your car). This is common all over Australia, but the Chamber of Commerce felt this would turn off the tourists, so they hired pretty girls, dressed them up in gold bikinis, and sent them out to find cars with expired tickets. Their job is to purchase new tickets (not sure for how long) and leave them on the cars with a card that says they were there!! Nice concept!! Rick is determined to have his photo taken with one of these girls, but we don't see any, despite a concerted effort. After lunch at a cafe opposite the beach, we spend the day wandering around the town and window shopping. We're back in Morningside by 6pm, eat dinner in, and watch TV.

Tuesday, June 27th: The Socceroos dream came to an end early this morning with a controversial 1-0 loss to Italy. Actually, the Aussies had been pretty well "jobbed" by the referees throughout the tournament and the penalty call in the 93rd minute was particularly gauling! What has impressed Rick about their team and their supporters in general, is their sportsmanship. They are of course very disappointed, but proud of how much better they've done than anyone expected. No rioting! No looting!

The weather seems to have turned permanently nice; it's another sunny day and the forecast is the same until after we leave. This morning we set off for the city. We want to do the Botanic Gardens and Queensland Parliament House tours--both free to the public. We just miss the 10:43 train; the next one is at 11:13. We exit the train at Central Station and walk to the Botanic Gardens. The tour begins at 1pm from the Rotunda; we have just enough time for lunch at the Gardens Cafe (where we ate on Sunday). After another delightful meal at a table in the sun, we walk the 300 metres to the Rotunda where we meet Peter and Gillian, a husband and wife team, who will lead the tour. There's also a family of three from Brisbane along, so it's a nice small group. Our guides point out several trees native to Queensland, including the bunya pine and the hoop pine. The former looks like a tree designed by an artist; and the latter by an architect. They explain how the fruit, leaves, bark, and timber from many of these trees were used by the aboriginals and early settlers in Queensland. Gillian shows us a tree that has become the home to a small possum. There's a hole about 5 feet up from the base and we peek in to see the little guy staring back out at us. Peter asks if we're bird lovers and of course, we are. There's a treat waiting for us under a small grove of trees with lots of underbrush: three bush stone curlews. They are standing and sitting very still, beautifully camouflaged in their surroundings, and not bothered by photo-taking tourists! We end our tour after an hour or so at a large banyan tree not far from the Parliament House. It's a short walk to the entrance and our timing is great--the next tour will start in 10 minutes. As you would expect, there's a security check, but no restriction on taking photos. The Queensland Parliament is uni-cameral (one house); the upper house (like the House of Lords in England) having been done away with as a cost cutting measure. The entire building was restored in the 1970s to its original state and it's a beautiful building. Especially impressive is the entrance hall with it's "Tara"-style stairway, the upper house chambers, and of course, the house chamber where all the debates take place and all the laws are enacted (or not). The tour lasts about 30 minutes and is well worth the time.

By now it's after 3pm and we're undecided whether to ride the ferry up to the University of Queensland or save this until tomorrow. We decide on the latter, and as we're walking back toward Queen Street Mall to find something to drink, we notice the CAT bus sign. Since we haven't ridden this in Brisbane yet, we hop on to one we spot across the street. The ride is a simple loop and we ride almost the whole route. It's not nearly as functional as the CAT buses in Adelaide, Perth or Freo, but it still amazes us that these cities provide this service free of charge. Even though they were designed to facilitate tourist visits, they are used by the locals as well. After a stop for a raspberry and chocolate gelatto, we're back at Central Station to catch the train back to our apartment. Another dinner in tops another nice day in Brisbane.

Wednesday, June 28th: We're going to ride the ferries today. Since we're not in any hurry, we take our time this morning and catch the 11:13 train into the city. Expecting a leisurely ride, we are surprised to find the train packed with protesters. It seems today has been selected as a national day of protest by the labor unions. They are protesting the unilateral ending of individual union work contracts. The protesters are decked out in t-shirts of different colors, depending, we suspect, on what union they belong to; with the slogan "Your rights at work. Worth fighting for.". The demonstration is to take place on the south bank of the Brisbane River in front of the Convention Centre and Art Museum. When most of the protesters get off the train at the South Bank station, we opt to continue on to Central Station. We're going to walk to the North Quay Ferry station which is across the river from the demonstration. It appears to be peaceful and orderly--exactly what we'd expect from Aussies. We take the ferry down river to the University of Queensland and before exploring the campus, we find a nice cafe for lunch next to the tennis courts. The campus is quite extensive and reminds Rick a little bit of Emory University in Atlanta. UQ, as it's called, is noted for its medical and journalism schools among other disciplines. After wandering the campus for a while, we head back to the ferry. We'd like to ride the ferries some more and eventually have dinner in the city. We've been riding the City CAT Ferries and try the smaller, slower Inner City Ferry which covers less of the river and stops at different places. After a couple of stops we get off because the diesel fumes are starting to get to Rick. We'll spend a little time while Rory goes into a couple of banks looking for 2006-dated Aussie coins. Her goal is to get two of each denomination: 5, 10, 20 and 50 cent coins, and 1 and 2 dollar coins. We want to have dinner at the Jade Buddha where we tried unsuccessfully on Saturday night. Rick calls and makes a booking for 6:30, but we get there earlier. The restaurant overlooks the river and it's open air with gas heaters distributed around the dining area. Our dinners are delicious and when we're finished we take the ferry to the South Bank stop and catch our train back from there.