On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Prescott Cactus
In January of 2023, at a combined age of 138, the bride and I sold the car and gave away most of our belongings. We now have a suitcase and carry on for each of us. Nothing left behind and no storage unit stuffed to the gills.
We pick big cities with competent public transportation and stay one to three months. Ideally in the downtown area in a fairly new category of lodging called apartment hotels. Fully furnished with kitchens and laundry appliances.
Like any worthwhile journey, our adventure needed a name. The bride remembered a Hemingway novel called “A Movable Feast” and we were set. Almost. I looked it up and discovered there was another book with the same name by Anthony Bourdain. Notwithstanding the untimely manner of both mens early demise, we kept it. And like the suds in a beer mug, these are the days of our lives. . .
Welcome to the capitol of Queensland, Brisbane, aka Brizzy and BrisVegas. It’s Australia’s 3rd largest city and about a 9 1/2 hour drive north of Sydney. It’s a port town located 12 miles away from the Coral Sea by river.
This is probably the best photo I have ever taken. I woke up a bit too early and thought that high-rise was on fire. I grabbed my phone and realized this was not the case. The wind was blowing left to right and the heat of the Sun caused the building to release it’s exterior moisture, which was likely the previous nights rain or condensation. That’s my story, anyway.
For a guy who grew up in Chicago, that looks like a funnel cloud waiting to happen, but no. It turned out to be a regular ol’ storm that blows into and out of town quickly and often without warning. At it’s warmest, Brisbane in January has average temps reaching 84F to lows of 71F. During the ravages of winter, temperatures range from an average high of 69F and goes down to 49F at night. Not bad at all.
Like most of Australia’s big cities public art installations are fairly abundant. This was the winner of the most photogenic with a high degree of coolness in my eyes.
In a suburb of Brisbane resides the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary which opened in 1927. It teams up with universities and .gov/au on wildlife research projects for koalas and other animals living at the sanctuary, but to a visitor it’s a small zoo.
The kangaroos at the sanctuary aren’t machine shop / junk yard roos. They have 50 to 75 kangaroos who roam a football field size area and allow humans to pat and feed them. But not just any food, only a special mix of food available at the gift shop for purchase in dime store candy bags of our youth. It was barely warm, but the kangaroos were showing signs of being lethargic.
This photo was taken from the CBD, or Central Business District side of Brizzy. The bridges on this side of the river lead to what’s known as Southbank. This hip / happening entertainment area contains the convention center, museums, trendy restaurants and sand beach, next to a working ferris wheel, unlike Melbourne.
BrisVegas at night. Not the intense glitz of Las Vegas, but a beautiful city non the less. This is the last city on this Australian crusade. Adelaide, Canberra and Melbourne were also visited, along with a side trip to Kangaroo Island. Hopefully it won’t be our the last.
Australia has changed their rules for visas. Now if you are over 75 years old it’s mandatory to pay a visit to a doctor who is approved by the Aussie gov to give you a chest x-ray (TB), urine sample (kidney failure), a blood draw (everything) and quick interview. As of last year there was only one approved doctor per province in Canada and not one in every US state. Their concern is visitors placing a burden on their health system, which now has it’s longest wait time for elective surgeries. As an aside, an MRI of a knee at a private medical clinic was USD $210 with no insurance, paid by cash. That was given less than 24 hours after the Doc in the Box appointment.
Hope you enjoyed, peace out.
Talk about low cloud cover ! I awoke to this and was pretty amazed. It reminded me of being in an airplane, looking down at the clouds. The view is from the 70th floor of an Apartment / Hotel. Brisbane has weather fronts that move in and then out pretty quickly and this one lasted less than 2 hours.
VFX Lurker
Gorgeous photos! Thank you for sharing these. Wishing you a good continued Feast.
CindyH
wow – amazing photos! I really want to travel to Australia and Brisbane is now near top of my list!
Prescott Cactus
@VFX Lurker:
Thanks !
Big move over the weekend from Brisbane to Chicago via Auckland and LA. 33 hours from door to door with bad food choices and TSA / airport fun.
All these pics are from an iPhone, no editing or filters, just focus, point and shoot.
Viva BrisVegas
Glad you enjoyed your visit.
The BrisVegas moniker is one of those opposite things. Brisbane is about as sleepy and parochial as a city can get.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great place to live. The summers are hot and humid but the winters are almost non-existent. If you ever want to visit I’d recommend March/April, but any time is good.
It’s probably the best city in Australia to raise kids. It lacks the self absorbed narcissism of Sydney, the arrogant elitism of Melbourne or the paranoid insecurity of Perth.
Which is to say it’s not the place to come for a wild nightlife, but it has its compensations.
Baud
Those are some bitchin photos.
Prescott Cactus
@CindyH:
The weather related photo’s were unique to Brisbane. During our stay in Australia, we hit Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Kangaroo(less) Island and of course Brisbane.
Melly, as the locals say, was our favorite.
JPL
Wow! What a magical journey.
Prescott Cactus
@Viva BrisVegas:
It’s also the hometown of the creator Bluey, the children’s cartoon.
It’s a great town and if we are allowed to return to Australia we would return after we hit the Gold Coast and insecure Perth (no Sydney) !
Australia now requires that all long term visa applicants to get a physical before being approved. Their concern I’m told is being stuck with kidney dialysis patients and bringing in tuberculosis.
eclare
That first photo is amazing. Thank you for sharing, keep us posted on the Feast’s next trip!
Prescott Cactus
@Baud:
Thanks Baud ! The city and its weather gets the credit for the beauty and Apple Inc gets it for the clarity. I’m still kind of amazed when I look at them. . .
raven
I was in Sydney on R&R when we landed on the moon! The Aussie’s were especially wild about if because they had a tracking station that was memorialized in the film “The Dish.” This scene is special!
Prescott Cactus
@eclare:
I submitted this to Watergirl in realtime in that I was there when she got this. Brisbane is the 10th city visited, with long weekenders included its 14 or 15. . .
eclare
@raven:
Awesome! Such a great movie, I saw it on the big screen in ATL when it came out.
eclare
@Prescott Cactus:
Wow…
Viva BrisVegas
@Prescott Cactus: It is indeed Bluey’s home town. Sometimes you can recognise bits of the background skyline.
The Bluey house is a style called a “Queenslander”. Easily recognised by the wooden construction on stumps and the wrap around verandas. Very common in the older inner suburbs, particularly on the north side of the river. It’s a modification of the colonial bungalow style brought out from India by the early administrators.
You wouldn’t know it now, but until the 1980s Brisbane was known for some of the best preserved British colonial tropical architecture in the world. Until the the conservative state government of the time decided their mates needed to build glass and concrete excrescences on those sites.
Prescott Cactus
@raven:
Jack Lord and James MacArthur would have loved that !
Prescott Cactus
@Viva BrisVegas:
I had never heard of Bluey until last month. I was reading an article on my Kindle from Bloomberg that mentioned the depth and breadth of its success with both kids and adults. I watched a few minutes here and there and . . . I guess I’m too old.
I was surprised by difference in the South bank and the North bank. Skyscrapers galore built and going up on the North, with smaller building (20 – 30 stories) rising up on the Southside.
raven
@Viva BrisVegas: I hadn’t heard of Bluey until our x-pat’s daughter showed up in a Bluey t-shirt on their Christmas visit! I love how they scream and yell the entire show!
J.
Wow! Love the photos! And love your spirit of adventure! Thanks for sharing. My husband had a business trip to Sydney back in the 1990s, and I tagged along. Absolutely loved Sydney. We also took a side trip to Noosa for a weekend, passing through Brisbane. Keep hoping to go back and have now added Brisbane to the list. (Also want to go to Melbourne.)
JPL
@raven: My son introduced me to bluey last year. I think he likes the show as much as the grand imps. I watched the show that talks about how Mum and Dad met and it’s realistic and adorable. .
Prescott Cactus
@JPL:
The creator of Bluey treats the show with lots of caring. The children who do the character voices are aging and their voices are starting to change. He wants to keep them on, as they were there in the beginning and made it what is today. He’s using equalizers and tech to help the audio remain true to his original vision. . . and to avoid getting new child voice actors.
HeartlandLiberal
That first photo?
Photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson is rightfully recognized as a master of the craft. He was one of the first true street photographers and artfully captured everyday life through the lens. But he also coined a term: The “Decisive Moment”.
You just captured The Decisive Moment, which every photographer dreams of.
Asparagus Aspersions
These are wonderful, thanks for sharing! My husband and I took a three-week trip to Australia about 11 years ago, and it remains one of my all-time favorite vacations. We meandered from Canberra to Melbourne on various country roads, and also visited Sydney and the Blue Mountains. We had been a bit stressed about driving on the left, but it was fine, except it took us about a week to stop turning on the windshield wipers every time we tried to use the blinkers. We didn’t have time to go to Queensland but these photos are really reminding me we’re due to go back.
Prescott Cactus
@HeartlandLiberal:
Thank you so very much. I took 3 photographs of that scene. The one before it had no orange or coloring from the sun. The mist was pure white and as I said I thought the building was in trouble. The one afterwards the sun shined a little brighter, but for reference I included more of the city and river area which greatly reduced the awe factor.
After I uploaded to the laptop to get a better look, I thought I’d never take a better picture in my life, but I’m sure satisfied if that’s the case.
Prescott Cactus
@Asparagus Aspersions:
I don’t have any regrets about it, but I quit driving before I began “The Movable Feast”. I had lived in a retirement community well before I was supposed to, so that I could be close to my Dad. You learn a lot of lives lessons surrounded by those who reside in “God’s Waiting Room”.
Giving up the car was one of hardest / worst decisions in the eyes of many. Even post Uber, it’s a badge of honor or status, that no one wants to give up. I vowed to not let that define effect or define me.
When asked, I say “It was strongly suggested that I quit driving” If any asks the follow up of “By whom?”, I respond, “the people on my hood”.
Trivia Man
ive long been fascinated by melbourne, never gave brisbane much thought at all. Thanks fir a wonderful tour.
Any bucket list cities left? My top choice is Istanbul but probably not till after retirement.
eclare
@Prescott Cactus:
Hahaha…
Delk
Wow, great photos. Back in Chicago to enjoy the cicadas, lol.
CCL
@HeartlandLiberal: Agreed!! The top photo and the last one are stunning…
For some reason, they also remind me of cover art from ’60s science fiction mags, though a quick ‘net search corrects me, as in fact, they are nothing like that era of cover art. Does call those to mind, though,
@Prescott Cactus:
Prescott Cactus
@Trivia Man:
We started out in our comfort zone with Honolulu, Chicago and Toronto. English speaking, familiar customs and such. next up is Quebec City where we’re adding some French language and influences. We fell for the city during a weekender from Toronto and will head up there for 2 months this summer.
Montevideo Uruguay, Santiago Chile, Asuncion Paraguay and Guatemala City are in our sights as well as Europe.
The 3 month limit of the Schengen Visitor Visa makes our 1 to 3 month stay in each city more difficult.
stinger
Breathtaking!
hohum
@Prescott Cactus: I have friends (average age ~135) who are playing the in-and-out-of-Shengen game, 1-3 months for each city. They speak highly of Portugal’s health care system. The rented an apartment in Durres, Albania, as home-base for a year. It’s just a ferry-ride from Italy. They said it was cheaper than 1 month in an Airbnb in some other places they’ve been. Their journey is called “Retired and ABroad”. Old-school humor. ;)
Prescott Cactus
@stinger:
Much thanks !
Prescott Cactus
@hohum:
I’m in a mixed marriage. . . The bride is all USA and I’m the same with a side order of Ireland. Our plan is to break things up with visits to Dublin, Cork and Belfast (to start with).
Anyway
@Prescott Cactus:
Cool pictures! I don’t think I had paid much attention to Brisbane before. Didn’t realize it was chock-full of high-rises.
In awe/envy of your suitcase-and-carry-on lifestyle! Tots impressive. Enjoyed the details and look forward to OTR from QC.
Prescott Cactus
@Anyway:
I broached the subject of leaving everything behind and living out of a suitcase for years. When the bride said yes, I’m told a look of horror came across my face. I know it went across my mind.
No complaints, as I am truly and actually “living the dream”. It takes a lot of planning and knowledge, that you only begin to understand once the ball is rolling. Bringing scripts into a foreign country is the easiest example. . . Our 6 months in Australia began knowing we could only bring 3 months with us. Rinse lather, repeat. .
Brisbane is a really nice place to visit. If anyone goes, please explore using the CityCat ferry system. The city is built along the river and it’s a great way to move about.