O Come All Ye Faithful.

Friday 25th November 2016

When we were in Hong Kong many of the buildings and shops had Christmas  decorations up but in Brisbane this evening we went to the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony at King George Square, outside the City Hall.  Several thousand people were there and we had a Children's Choir and two singers from Australia The Voice TV programme.

It's the biggest Xmas tree in Australia (not real of course, but still pretty) and solar powered.

It felt strange to sing Christmas carols in November in a hot climate wearing t shirts and shorts.  The crowd was great, well behaved and polite.  From there we had some take away food and walked around.  We had a drink in the Treasury Casino building which was a massive building of gambling, bars and music.  We walked through the largest casino room just for the experience.

What a mugs game!  They must have money to throw away.

There was also an open air Salsa Disco in a main square.  The dancers were far too good for my random moves.....we need to do some proper classes.

Anyway, I had better back track to earlier in the day.  First thing we went to the Tourist Information and organised our next destination.  We have a flight from Brisbane to Cairns sorted for next Wednesday so we needed somewhere to stay from Sunday to Tuesday.  It was the most attractive Information Centre I have been to.  It was in an old cinema, see the photo.

The person who helped was great.  We decided to go to a smaller place on the coast outside Brisbane called 'Manly'.....it suited me down to the ground!  It looks nice with a harbour and beach with coastal walks.

We had a walk around the City Hall and clock tower.

It is a grand building that contains the Museum of Brisbane.  We learned of the creation of Brisbane from the discovery by Captain Cook to its exploration by John Oxley.  The city was named after Sir Thomas Brisbane who was a Scot who funded the exploration.  We went up the clock tower which makes the same chime as Big Ben and enjoyed the views.

We went to cool down at the city beach and pool and had a cooling dip.  Those of a nervous disposition should turn away now!

Later we had a free trip on the City Hopper Ferry on a trip up and down the river, past the Storey Bridge and back to the Botanical Gardens.

That's the little ferry between the bigger boats.

Then it was a freshen up before the Xmas tree ceremony.