Day 10: Short ride, Brisbane - the last of the tour - Over the ditch

April 28, 2024

Day 10: Short ride, Brisbane - the last of the tour

It's too comfortable in our apartment, eight floors up and with a view of tomorrow's railway station. This is a flash apartment hotel with immaculate and soliticious staff. Thankfully, they have turned a blind eye to our numerous to-ings and fro-ings with bikes from lift to lobby. And they stored our big floppy bike bags for the 10 days of touring, so we're very pleased with our choice of accommodation.

But, after a leisurely morning, we make a move to ride along the Brisbane River (great recommendation, Tricia) and find lunch. The early morning sun has been overtaken by showers since we last went outside, but these soon clear. It's a gentle ride along the Bicentenary Bikeway, doodging scooters and pedestrians and keeping a wary eye out for weekend road-bike warriors coming up from behind.

We do a lap of the botanical gardens then head back down to the South Bank, which we rode through yesterday; this is a hugely popular family zone, with play equipment amd a giant outdoor swimming pool. We overlook this pool at our lunch stop and enjoy the ambience.

From there, it's home via a supermarket, for dinner supplies. And now, Bruce is starting to strip the bikes in order to pack them into bags.

This has been an interesting tour. As a shakedown ride, it finetuned what we needed to include in the gear list for our European tour. For me, the rail trail was a good challenge in bike-handling and hill-tackling.

However, it also reminded us of why we love touring in Europe SO much: the cycling culture and infrastructure. We fly to Zurich in mid-July . . .and it can't come soon enough!

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Today's ride: 14 km (9 miles)
Total: 445 km (276 miles)

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Tricia GrahamYou fly to Zurich about the time we return home from our trip. Look forward to following it. Completely agree with you about cycling in Europe
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2 weeks ago

Robyn RichardsTo Tricia GrahamYou must be doing something interesting like a river cruise before you start touring ?
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2 weeks ago

Carolyn van HoeveHi Robyn, just found this journal! Great to read you've been out on the road for another adventure, though it doesn't inspire me to rush off to Brisbane. We lived in Sydney for 15 years with bikes and though there are some bike paths (one on the harbour bridge that I rode over every day), mostly it's dealing with motorists who don't want you on the road. Not unlike Auckland in some ways. Discovering cycling in Europe was like landing in paradise. Looking forward to reading about your trip in July and great idea to have a mini test tour. We're heading off at the beginning of September.
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2 weeks ago

Robyn RichardsTo Carolyn van HoeveHi Carolyn
Queeensland is possibly less cycle friendly than NSW though Brisbane itself had some good infrastructure though. It's a nice city.
Yes , we're definitely looking forward to Europe now. And you'll be hanging on for September!
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2 weeks ago