A DAY TRIP INTO THE CITY....

 On Tuesday I caught up with my good friend Kathy again...  He had a specialist appointment in the city, so I decided to go with her and we made a day of it .  

I met her at the bus stop in Springwood around 9am, and we caught the 555 into the Myer's Centre in the City.  

Her appointment was at 11am, so we had plenty of time to have a bit of a look around in the Centre before making our way up to Wickham Terrace to the specialist rooms.

We had a wander through Target and both of us ended up buying a new long sleeve shirt each.  I really like a shirt with a collar and it is surprising how hard they have been to come by this winter.  The bonus was that they were reduced from $39 down to $15.

Once we made our purchase, we decide to head off and head up through town, across King George Square and head up to her appointment...

It is years since I have really been in the heart of the city.  I remember when King George Square had a bit fountain in the middle of the square.  That has all gone now.  There are a couple of sculptures but that is it...

Brisbane City Town Hall

 I remember before we were married, I often used to stay in the City at the then "Crest International".  Back in those days it was one of the tallest buildings around... now it is completely dwarfed by the massive sky scrappers built all around it.  It was also across the road from this beautiful Uniting Church that used to stand out with it's tall steeple... Now it is completely surrounded by massive building and rather than the grand building it used to be, it is now quite quaint..

The old "Crest International Hotel"is now the Mecure in the heart of Brisbane..

Beautiful Uniting Church right in the heart of Brisbane

completely dwarfed by the city sky scrappers..

There is a lot more sculptures and art work throughout the city these days... I love seeing all of this sort of stuff and like to photograph it when I do see it.  I am not sure what the following piece of art work was about but it sure seemed to have something to do with the Union movement and voting...

 

lots of new art works around the city...

We made our way up Turbot Street towards Wickham Terrace when I came across these four pieces of art work on a corner.  They were quite impressive... would definitely appeal to my husband who likes this sci-fi sort of stuff.  Of course I had to take some photos...

Standing in front of one of the "Forme del Mito"at the entrance to Jacob's Ladder stairs in Brisbane

 "Forme del Mito", or Forms of Myth, is a group of bronze sculptures  which were located in King George Square.  Brisbane City Council purchases the pieces after the finish of World Expo in 1988, for which they were bought to Brisbane.  Designed by Italian artist Arnaldo Pomodoro in 1983, the Forme Del Mito is derived from the Greek tragedy of Agamemnon.  Each figure represents a force and principal character from the tragedy.

The sculptures were later moved to their current resting places at the bottom of the Jacobs Ladder pathway in King Edward Park (on the north-west corner of Turbot & Edward Streets).

The thoroughfare between Spring Hill and the Brisbane CBD was indeed little more than a ladder in its early days. A dirt track with hand rails, it enabled the upper crust who inhabited Wickham Terrace (one of Brisbane’s premier residential streets in the mid to late 19th century) access to the commercial district below.

In the 1920’s steps were constructed and these were reworked in 1961 when Brisbane City Council took over the park. From 1891 to its demolition towards the end of the Joh regime in 1986, the grand classical Trades Hall building flanked one side where its neighbouring IBM tower is now.

In the past couple of years it has been rejuvenated with colour so that those standing at the base see red (which can be seen as far away as Kangaroo Point) and those at the top see a palette of soft rainbow colours.

Jacob's Ladder

In the end we decided to walk up the path as there is a lot let pressure on your knees and since I have a very dodgy knee this would be the less painful of the two options...

It turned out that it was only the first part of the walk was VERY steep.  The rest of the way up is a gentle slop up the Board work.  What I didn't expect to find was more sculpture..... so much in this beautiful city to lighten all your exploring.  So much love seeing Brisbane through the eyes of a tourist...

Also a postcard picture..

 

We arrived at the Specialists about 15 minutes early.  Often he can run quite late so we thought we would be in for a wait.  I had actually bought a book with me to read whilst I waited for Kathy.... In the end she went in three minutes early and she was out within 20 minutes, so we didn't loose much of our day at all.  

 

Once we got out we headed up the hill a little so that I could get a photo of the old windmill. 

 Whilst I was taking this photo, Kathy noticed that there was a little coffee shop on the corner opposite it so thought it would be nice to grab a cuppa.  We walked inside to find thy had some great lunch time specials, so decided that since it was almost noon, we should grab some lunch instead...

We both ordered the roast pumpkin, pine nuts, spinach and feta quiche with a lovely tossed salad for lunch.  The special was $10...

Enjoying a lovely lunch together...

Very tasty...

 We had found a table outside and probably sat there for a good hour enjoying our lunch, the weather and each other's company....

From here we decided to keep heading up the hill and crossing across and walking back down King Edward Park and head for a walk around the Roma Street Parklands...

 

It is the perfect time to visit the gardens with spring flower all out in bloom at the moment.

 

Everything was lush green - beautiful to behold..

There were numerous bearded dragons sunning themselves in the sun..

We wanded down into the garden area to walk amongst all the beautiful flowering plants...

The garden was alive with colour and bees,  hundreds of bees on all the different plants.  In fact a little later as we wandered through this section of the garden we noticed two big bee hives nestled in the shrubs along with a native bee hive in a strategically placed log... 

We left these beautiful gardens to wander around the park a little more, going to check out some of the water features... This was when we came across the bee hives.   So good to see them actually set up in the gardens themselves.  

Bee hives set up in the gardens

A native bee hive

One of the colour features of these gardens were the very colourful huge flower pots filled with all sorts of flowering plants.  They added lots of colour, character and playfulness to the gardens and I just loved them....

By now we had been wandering through the gardens for well over an hour, and we still needed to walk back into the city to catch our bus home... We wanted to be back at our car by at least 3pm,  so after a toilet stop we started our trek back towards the city centre...

We were pretty hot by the time we got back into the city... The day had turned quite warm.  

As we walked past an ice cream shop we decided to indulge in a cold treat.  Once we had bought our ice-creams we headed into the Mall to find a seat so that we could sit an eat them..

By now it was close to 2.30pm, so we headed back to the Myer's Centre to catch our bus home..

It's been a great day,  we really have enjoyed our walk about the gardens, and I came close to my goal of a 10,000 steps today..

What a great week it has been... We have packed so much into my time down, here.  I have managed to catch up with friends, family and my grandchildren making this Muma and Moppy and extremely happy one.  

Time to head home tomorrow....  The time has flown...