Thursday 6 February 2014

Brisbane - guided by a Brisbane Greeter.

To better enjoy the photos, please click on them to increase their size.

In December, Margot volunteered to become a Brisbane Greeter for the city council. Anyone can visit their site and ask for a free guided tour of Brisbane for up to 4 hours. Google 'Brisbane Greeters', if you are interested.
Margot has been on a number of training walks and, this coming Sunday, is taking her second group out.
Yesterday, Jenny and I joined her on a trial run, for Sunday's outing. The walkers meet at City Hall, but on this occasion, we commenced from South Brisbane station.

View after a 50 metre walk from the station.

Southbank parklands was created on the site of the World Expo, hosted by Queensland in 1988. It was an amazing event at the time, but its legacy is a wonderful parkland on  the Brisbane River, with restaurants and entertainment.  


View across to the city, with the Meriton Hotel now our tallest landmark.


The Nepalese Peace Pagoda is only 1 of 3 outside Nepal. 80 tonne of Nepalese timber was carved by 160 Nepalese families over 2 years for our World Expo. It was so popular, the Brisbane City Council bought it after Expo, so that it could remain in Brisbane.


Adjacent to the pagoda is the rainforest boardwalk and liana garden seats. These were created to represent the the twisting vines of the forest. 




The beach at Southbank!



We walked as far as the Southbank Pier 3, to catch the free ferry to Docklands and back to Riverside.



 Riverside Restaurants

 Customs House


 Story Bridge

Coffee and an exploration of the Customs House built in 1886 followed.


A walk through through the Botanic Gardens led us to Old Government House, completed in 1862, shortly after Queensland separated from New South Wales.





 Side view



 Entrance

From here we visited The Cube - a must visit for young science fans. It is one of the world’s largest digital interactive learning and display spaces, as part of Qld University of Technology.
Here visitors can participate in explorative, inspired experiences in what is part science lab, part digital engagement hub.


A short walk away was the Goodwill footbridge, for our return across the river, to Southbank Station.
We had visited familiar places, but we returned more informed of our heritage.
                              
                          Walking 'down under' with friends is so rewarding and enjoyable!

Thank you for visiting. I would love to read your comment.
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1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the tour of your town! Your friend will do a great job as a Brisbane Greeter.

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