Brisbane!

When Candice and I had the opportunity to travel around as part of my job and visit a few Australian states, I started to think about whether it might be possible to visit all the states/territories around Australia. It isn't nearly as daunting as the US, as there are only a handful, but Australia is still extremely large so it wasn't going to be easy either. After our trip to Perth earlier this year, we decided to take advantage of another holiday weekend and book a trip to sunny Brisbane to escape the cold and tick off another state from our list. (Only 2 states to go now, Tasmania & Northern Territory (technically a territory and not a state, but whatever)).

Brisbane!

Our first day in Brisbane was just what we needed. When we left Melbourne on Thursday evening, all three of us were in varying states of sickness, constantly feeling cold and craving a new adventure. We woke up on Friday morning to clear blue skies, with temperatures approaching the low 70s and a whole new city to explore.

 After getting some coffee from a little cafe near our hotel, we started wandering and shortly came across the Kurilpa Bridge, which led us to the art district and then on to Southbank. Southbank was a really cool area, it has a man-made beach (Brisbane is on a river, and the only beaches are about an hour away), really cool kids pool and playground area, tons of restaurants, a little market of locally made crafts every weekend, a winding archway of flowers running the length of the area, and excellent views of the city looking across the Brisbane River.

the Kurilpa and William Jolly bridges

Southbank

kids pool

the Goodwill bridge

apparently Segways are very popular in Brisbane, as we saw many of these signs around the city!

After getting our fill of Southbank, we walked across another footbridge back into the city and explored the City Botanic Gardens. This was probably our only letdown of the trip, as all the other cities we have visited have excellent botanic gardens, but the gardens in Brisbane were pretty unspectacular. They had lots of open grassy areas and would be ideal for picnics or playing footy, but what we love about botanic gardens are the densely packed sections with native and exotic plants, so you feel like you have been transported to a little mini-jungle. The gardens in Brisbane were too open and really didn't feature much in the way of gardens at all. Arden still loved wandering around them though and walking up to random strangers to say hello.

one of the cooler parts of the Botanic Garden: a circle of palm trees

The rest of the day we walked along the river, taking in the views of the city and Brisbane's most iconic landmark, Story Bridge. One of the cool things about Brisbane which is very different from Melbourne, is that the Brisbane River winds and meanders through the city, dividing it up so that as you walk along the river your perspective of the city is always changing. The river is also much larger than the Yarra (the river that runs through Melbourne), so Brisbane has a network of CityCats (catamarans) and ferries which shuttle tourists and commuters to various stops along the river all around the city. After our long river walk, we took one of the free ferries back to the pier closest to our hotel, and enjoyed the views of the city and surrounds from the top deck of the little boat.

view from the ferry

Our second day in Brisbane was forecast to be rainy, but ended up being another beautiful sunny day. We decided to explore the CBD, which is full of very unique skyscrapers. Almost every high-rise in the city has a different style, but they flow together well and each has a unique feature which sets it apart from the one next to it. After wandering through the CBD, we walked across Story Bridge, and made our way to Kangaroo Point Cliffs Park, which is a popular destination for taking photos of the city skyline and rock climbing.

view from Kangaroo Point

After mistakenly deciding it was a good idea to get a milkshake at the cafe on the cliffs (seriously Australia, a milkshake is not meant to be runny and watery), we headed back to the city to explore the Queen St Mall and Roma Street Parkland, which had a beautiful garden area and cool waterfall split in half that you could walk through. It was something we had seen from our hotel, and definitely one of the highlights of the trip. I'd definitely recommend it over the City Botanic Gardens.

the iconic Story Bridge up-close

Roma Street Parkland

the Pointsetta Riverfire sculpture

The last day was the highlight of our trip. Before our trip, Candice saw that the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA for short) was hosting an exhibition we had to visit - Marvel: Creating the Cinematic Universe!!!! We timed our visit perfectly too, as that morning the weather had turned so it was a perfect escape from the rain. The exhibit was so cool! We loved seeing all the original costumes, weapons, various large scale props/decorations and of course the life-size Hulkbuster. Also, I've never seen an art exhibit with such huge lines (not to mention all the visitors dressed up in costume). Thankfully we got there early, before the line went out the door and around the street.

Thor throne room

Iron men.

some green-screen fun. :)

part of the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok movie was filmed in Brisbane, so we got to see some sneak preview props!

Hulkbuster!

We had such a fun time in Brisbane and highly recommend a visit. The weather was great, the people were friendly and there were so many nice places to walk along the river and around the city. Arden also loved Brisbane, though that's probably because we let her walk around on her own and explore more than we had on any previous trip, which she absolutely loved. As soon as we took her out of the pram so she could walk around, her face would light up and she could barely contain her excitement. It's so fun sharing our little trips and adventures with her, and seeing her grow with each journey. 

Next up: a big trip to visit our families back in the States!

-BK
Brisbane - June 2017 from Candice Kortlever on Vimeo.