AUSTRALIAN POLICE TOOK US FOR A RIDE.

December 28

It's Sunday. We leave next Saturday for Sydney.  We still have a few coasts to visit, sea world, a museum and another island. On Friday, I took Helen to Brisbane for an overnighter for her birthday. We stayed at the Marriott, the same hotel Obama stayed at when he was here. We had a single room, he had the top two floors. We paid for all of our room and like the rest of Americans we all chipped in for his.

We got a bit lost one of the days and asked a police officer for directions. He told us to jump in the police van and he took us back to the hotel. It happens like that only in Australia. It was Boxing day on Friday. The restaurants have menus with two prices, a regular price and another price about 10-20% higher for public holidays. The Queensland mall was wall to wall people with prices reduced and the restaurants charged more. Many restaurants were closed, but those that were opened charged more to eat on Boxing day. There is no tipping in Australia, which makes total sense to me and I had no trouble adjusting to that cultural characteristic.

Helen and I took a two hour bus tour of Brisbane. It seemed to me that all the main buildings were prisons at one time, or were towers that they hung the villains from for all the other prisoners to see. It was believed that this visual act discouraged more crime  It must have worked because all the people we met seemed real nice now. The photo is Helen with the Story bridge over the Brisbane river in the background. It is lit up at night. You can climb to to the top for $100 and rappel down the sides for another $100. We did neither.