Brisbane Roadtrip

Well, I thought that I might resurrect this old blog (rather than starting a new one) to record some of our road trip to Brisbane in October 2015 .... boy! is it a long time since I last posted in this blog. So much has happened and I won't try to sum that up but just launch on.

Old Bar Beach

We left Sydney last Saturday with Maria Rohr (who had been down for the ACO concert on the Friday) and headed for Maria's place in Old Bar. The weather had been unusually hot, up into the 30's even though it was still early Spring. The VW Combi Festival was on at Old Bar (it was the long weekend) so we made a couple of visits. On the Saturday evening we wandered around, listened to music and watched the fireworks - it is a pretty impressive festival with lots of people doing the same thing. On the Sunday we wandered around the "Mega Markets" and sat in the shade whilst again listening to music from the main stage. Mick and Laine inspected the huge number of Combi vans in display before we headed home in the afternoon heat. We had a couple of quiet days then with Maria in her most comfortable little house before heading off on Tuesday morning. It was great to catch up with Maria and to have some easy, relaxing time together.

Clarenza

The next stop was with Peter and Linda in Grafton. There is always so much to talk about when we get together so it was a late night!!! The beautiful property, which they are in the process of selling, is a veritable oasis for the traveller!!! It was great to catch up.

Part of the reasoning of this trip was to travel up the Highway at a more leisurely pace and to call in on the people we usually just race by. After Thursday's lunch stop in Brunswick Heads where we have stayed for "Bluesfest" several times it was a quick zip up the motorway to Brisbane where via AirBnB we rendezvoused with Ben and were soon ensconced in a great little city apartment on the 30 floor, right next to the river ... the perfect spot for a Brissie experience.

Finding our way around was very easy with lots of walking to Southbank as the main focus. Following our custom we started Thursday off with the Rivercat from end to end - we have found before, that a river trip or a long bus ride is a great way to get a sense of a place and how it is laid out. The river, with its twists and turns, makes it difficult to just get a good sense of direction but Brisbane is a compact, smaller city so it isn't to bad!

Room with a View!

Out in the evening for a Musica Viva concert (the Modigliani Quartet .. we swapped out Sydney tickets before we left!) and a late meal before a sleep in on Friday and and Arts day. We visited GOMA and the Queensland Art Gallery before a spell at home and jazz music on the Green at 5 and a wander along the Southbank (again) to visit the markets and see the locals relaxing ... Southbank is is great place - they really have thought about how to build a great city!!!