Happy Valentine’s Day to all and Happy Birthday to Lila!!!

Today we started out at the City Botanical Gardens. It is free to anyone who wants to enjoy and it has the most unbelievable variety of trees, flowers and bushes. It starts on the river and winds its ways through 50 acres of peace and beauty. There are rare species and not so rare. There are beautiful big, old banyan fig trees and colorful hibiscus.

The Gardens were first opened in 1828 to the public. Brisbane being a convict settlement in the early 1800s, it was not a surprise to learn that food crops were planted in the gardens by convicts in 1825 so they could feed the prison colony. Later, flowers, trees and bushes were planted for public viewing.

We then hopped on a City Cat….one of the many forms of public transportation here in Brisbane. The City Cat is the longer version of the Kitty Cat and it cost .50 to ride it as long as we wanted. We spent 45 minutes on the river. We started on the upper deck until we were rained on and then went inside to enjoy the rest. We disembarked at Felons Brewery which is a craft brewery that spans the waterfront under the Storey Bridge. There are several places to eat at Felons, from bar food to more elegant Asian fusion.

Felons is named for the four felons who left Sydney in the early 1800s and were headed to Illawarra but got blown off course and were lost at sea. They were shipwrecked on Morteton Island and they started this Brewing company which still exists today under the Storey Bridge.

From there we embarked on a walk to find street markets. Unfortunately, we were either too late in the day to see them or they no longer exist. Who knows, who cares but it was fun trying.

We made it back to our hotel, spent a little time at the pool, resting and then off to a fabulous dinner for Valentine’s Day for us. We went to a restaurant next door to our hotel in the Westin. They had a wonderful set menu, complete with roses and champagne for us and we enjoyed.

That’s it for the day, more tomorrow….If you are in the snow, be careful and stay warm.

Leaving on a jet plane (for Cairns) dont know when we will be back again (to Brisbane)

Cici at sea signing off……