Author Archives: Butty

Day in Brisbane. Took the train using a Go Card, (Australian oyster card). Walked through the CBD to the river. Over the river the South Bank. Arts and Culture abound on the south bank. We walked along by ‘the beach’, … Continue reading →

Family day out to the Glasshouse mountains, misty day, so views were spoiled. We picniced in the company of several brush turkeys and wearing extra layers of clothing to keep warm, so much for subtropical Queensland!! After lunch we walked … Continue reading →

A day at the Shaw home having a lunchtime BBQ with all of Irene’s relies. All but one of the family ( Irene’s nephew Andrew lives in Melbourne) arrived for a super lunch well prepared on the BBQ by Dennis, … Continue reading →

Me and Er, Dennis and Emma( Irene’s niece) walked into Sandgate and met Anne for a coffee. They did some shopping, we bought some wine, they drove home and we walked back. Nice to have a few lazy days after … Continue reading →

First real day in Oz. Anne and Dennis gave us a trip around their local area and town of Sandgate. They are about a fifteen minute walk to the sea and in an area north of Brisbane. After lunch back … Continue reading →

Arrived Sydney 20 minutes early and transferred to another terminal for our domestic flight to Brisbane. Bizarre bus trip around the inner airport on the runway aprons past hangars with jumbo jets being worked on etc. All very strange but … Continue reading →

Starbucks again this morning to collect mail and update. Walked to the Yuyuan gardens and along the way stumbled across a huge material shop and on further inspection realised it is one of those stores that make you suits and … Continue reading →

Today is our only full day in Shanghai, so we have our work cut out to see all we wanted to see. We set off before breakfast to the ‘Cool Docks’ an area of old dock buildings that have been … Continue reading →

Arrived on time in Shanghai and immediately came to the conclusion that this city is a lot more “sane” than both Beijing and Xi’an. Sign posts outside the railway station with directions to the taxi ranks which is just not … Continue reading →

It has been a really misty murky and drizzly day today so we decided to have a lie in and not to go anywhere special. We had planned to walk the outer walls of the city but it would have … Continue reading →

Took a bus from the main railway station to the site of the Terracotta Army. At last public transport without having to stand. Seating only in this bus. The site is about 40 k out of the city and a … Continue reading →

Arrived in Xi’an a little late at about 10 am. We did get some sleep. Irene got off the train about a minute before me and when I got off I couldn’t see her so I thought she had walked … Continue reading →

Well last day in Beijing before we set off by overnight sleeper at 8 pm heading for Xi’an. Spent the day at The Lama Temple, largest Buddhist Temple in Beijing. After that a trip to The Birds Nest and Cube … Continue reading →

Caught the subway to Tiananmen Square with 5 million other Chinese only to find another 5 million had got there before us. Not only that about 2 million wanted to use the public loo plus us two. Irene did and … Continue reading →