It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like an Aussie Christmas

Day 52, Grand Asia 2017

Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2017 – Brisbane, Australia

Downtown Brisbane is awash in Christmas decorations, reminding us of the approaching holiday. Of course, we all remember when the Christmas decorations came out after Thanksgiving, or at least after Halloween. Heck, Christmas merchandise was already making its way to store shelves before I left on this cruise on Oct. 1.

Many passengers chose to go see the koalas and kangaroos at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, either on a ship excursion or on their own. They reported getting to hold a koala for a photo and feeding the kangaroos. It sounds like they had a good time.

img_1660In hindsight, I would have enjoyed that option, and as it is I may leave Australia without seeing either of its iconic animals (except as a statue).

Instead, I chose to take the complimentary shuttle from the pier for the 20-minute ride to the central business district for a day of shopping, sightseeing and leisurely web browsing. I had a delightful time.

Brisbane is the third-largest city in Australia with a population of about 2 million. Cruise ships dock at a new terminal a few miles downstream from the city center. New apartment buildings with large balconies, the better to enjoy Brisbane’s mild climate, are going up everywhere.

The weather cooperated by being mostly sunny and comfortably in the 70s. The afternoon threatened a bit of rain but didn’t carry through. We wandered to the post office, where my companion for the day mailed her Christmas cards. She hopes they arrive in the states before we do.

WiFi at the Apple Store proved to be both fast and free, so I made a couple of quick calls home to chat with my sisters. The downtown area is full of high-end shopping as well as stores selling souvenirs and local items. You can have Uggs that you actually bought in Australia! We saw boomerangs, stuffed koalas, T-shirts and any number of items to take home (but passed on them).

The Christmas department at Myers, the local department store, is remarkably a lot like Macys. The Queen Street outdoor mall is lined with fun shops and decorated for the holidays.

During the lunch hour we stumbled across a troupe of native dancers and musicians performing in the middle of the mall. A cute young girl was working hard to keep up with the more experienced dancers.

DSC09699Free Brisbane City WiFi reached everywhere, and locals relaxed on in the laid-back chairs-to-share around the open green spaces.

We relaxed in the late morning at a coffee shop with delicious pastries and faster download speeds, so we took the time to update some of our apps.

Dozens of food stalls filled the Queens Gardens Square and reminded me of the farmers market in Chicago’s Logan Square, where I lived for a few months last summer. Everywhere I saw office workers and shoppers enjoying a fresh lunch. We could have had a choice of Lebanese, Asian, Portuguese or Italian specialties. Instead, we opted to wait till we were back on the ship. I found some cute locally made earrings at one market stall.

The Portside Wharf where the ship docked is newly developed and sports a selection of restaurants and bars. Because we weren’t sailing away until 10 p.m., a number of passengers enjoyed an off-ship dinner.