Brisbane 4 of 4

The final part of our City Hall tour was to "climb" the Clock Tower and we were ready for the long climb up. To our disappointment we climbed about 14 steps with our guide before she ushered us into a lift which was to take us to the top of the tower. No one is allowed to climb today due to safety reasons – the steps were a little higher than the average stair tread so maybe we'd have been exhausted by them. What was enjoyable was being in the old brass-wire cage of the lift which is still operated by hand: the brass handle mechanism was exactly like the one used in old buildings in Sydney when I was a child. The operator said it has only ever broken down once in nearly 37 years. Amazing! People really knew how to build things to last, in previous generations. The view from the tower viewing platform looked down on the traffic the tops of 2 very old churches below: -the older white Presbyterian building and the Uniting Church, (originally a Methodist Church) which has several spires this edifice. By walking around the 4 sides of the tower platform we were given a 360⁰ view of the city and by peering between the city skyscrapers we has glimpses of the River in one direction and the hills of Mt. Tambourine in the other. We also looked down on top of the huge circular copper roof of the Concert Hall below us and marvelled at its' size and its' value for copper is very expensive in today's market. Later we visited the Uniting Church building which was open for daily visits and as a place for people to rest and pray. The inside of the church had beautiful stain glass windows, a huge pipe organ (built in 1889 in Manchester, UK) and a redwood buttress ceiling. We sat in a pew and prayed for our trip and our family members, before pondering on the skill, dedication and love that craftsmen had displayed in building this edifice. We then headed back to the sea Princes via another River cat and again enjoyed a leisurely float back to the ship. What a great day we'd had in Brisbane!

We'd enjoyed learning about the history of Brisbane from the Museum video and the walking tour of City Hall was thoroughly enlightening. We felt that now we have a better appreciation of this city and that the free tour City Hall is one we'd recommend this to all visitors.