Australia 2019 – Day 19 – Foiled!

Today I cleaned up my van, and in plenty of good time I arrived to my hotel. It was only 9:30 am, way early for checking in, but the friendly attendant said it was no problem for me to leave my car in the parking lot while I took a quick jaunt to the city. Twenty minutes later I was in the suburban train, and by 10:20 am I had arrived in downtown. My plan, as always, was to take the Hop On – Hop Off Tourist Bus, and spend maybe three hours looking at the highlights of this vibrant city. But I couldn’t find the bus stop, and as many people I asked I got as many different answers. I was getting a bit frustrated, until I found a metro supervisor lady who comfortably told me she knew it all. To my question she started shaking her head and with sincere sympathy told me that, alas, the tourist bus was no more! Arghh ☹

I have always suspected that the bus ran at a loss in the smaller cities (not that Brisbane is small), but made it up for full buses in the great capitals of the world.

With great sadness I limited my tourism to a brief tour of the downtown area, a walk along the Brisbane river promenade, and a visit to a real library (yes, they still have libraries in this country). Pretty, but without the scope a real tour would have given me.

I took the train back to the suburbs, checked into my hotel, emptied the van of all my possessions, and finally drove it to the car wash and then to the yard where I had to return it. It is official, I ran 5,100 km in my flash trip through eastern Australia! From where I left the van it was something like 45 minutes walking to my hotel, where I will do washing and a general rearranging of my stuff. I leave for the airport tomorrow at 5 am. Cairns, here I come.