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We woke early and prepared for a day trip in Brisbane, Queensland sunny capital city. The Sea Princess moored in the Brisbane River and we could see the city from the top deck as we headed to the Horizon Court for an early breakfast. Following this 10 minutes walk along the riverside promenade to a Rivercat terminal. Today was a completely different Brisbane morning from the very wet and dreary morning we experienced on our last visit here, in 2018. At 8.30, the sun was shining and a gentle breeze greeted us as we strolled to the riverside terminal. The Brisbane River has a great transport system with Rivercats and other ferries departing every 20 minutes throughout the heavy peak periods and many locals use the service to travel to and from work.

Our Rivercat trip took about an hour and we were surprised at how long and winding the Brisbane River is. The scenery varied from palatial riverside mansion style homes, tall unit buildings, condominiums, parklands and skyscrapers of offices and commercial buildings. We passed several teams of energetic rowers training along the river, private yachts moored in some bays and heavily loaded trawlers returning from a night of fishing. We sailed under the steel framed Storey Bridge which was built in the depression years and not only provided work for many unemployed men but created a mateship between men in the 'town', a pride in the city. The bridge links the western and eastern riverbanks and its' completion increased the interactions between two towns once separated by the river.

We alighted at the North Quay Terminal and walked to the Queen Street Mall area where we stocked up on some toiletry items that we'd deliberately not pack due to lack of space in our suitcases. Most passengers had done the same thing and waited until Brisbane to buy shampoo, canned drinks etc. The plan for the day was to visit the Brisbane City Hall and climb the clock tower so we headed in that direction.

City Hall was built in the 1920's in what was once a water hole that had dried up. It was a major undertaking for the fledging city and is still an impressive building today. It was opened in 1930, just two years before Sydney's Harbour Bridge construction and until 1963 City Hall was the tallest building in Brisbane mostly due to a council ruling that no buildings could be built any higher than City Hall. Today many buildings tower over this site but it's still an impressive building to view. City Hall was designed to impress" and today though it is a heritage listed building, it is still a working building with the Brisbane City Council chambers and offices occupying many rooms. It is also home to the City Mayor and the Deputy, a magnificent Concert Hall, the Museum of Brisbane, an art gallery and several rented offices for commercial and private enterprises. The outside appearance is one of a Greek Parthenon-design with a colonnade row of massive hand-carved sandstone pillars. A huge triangular sandstone carved tableau depicting people, animals and flora stands above the main entrance. It was completed by a female and carver who took 2 years to complete the sculpture. The crowning glory of the building is its four-sided Clock Tower which we planned to climb. Looking up at its height we could only imagine how long it would take us to climb it.

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We decided to take a guided tour of City Hall, expecting a how-hum experience but instead we learnt so much about this building that we are in awe of its designers and builders. We entered the main foyer and were bedazzled by its spaciousness, its huge twin marble staircases built from white marble imported from Italy. The architectural style is typical of the art-deco designs of the 1920's with the black and white colours of employed in ancient Greek and Roman public buildings. Marble is the main material used in the foyer where the extremely tall rectangular columns have been constructed from grained marble which has fossilised insects within its pattern formation. Pink marble from Chilligoe in NW Queensland and black marble from Pompeii have also been used extensively. Even the ceiling has been decorated in an art-deco geometric-pattern carved in pure glistening white marble which is enhanced by enormous black metal and glass chandeliers which light up this beautiful foyer.

We were in awe of this beautiful space and totally 'blown away" with the black and white fish-tail pattern, inlay-designed marble floor covering, created by hand-cut and hand-laid white marble chips. In the centre of this foyer floor is a black and white Greco-designed circular patterned centre-piece, painstakingly crafted by artisans of the past. What a wonderfully preserved piece of history is preserved in this building for generations to enjoy and admire in the future. Brisbane council is to be congratulated for this buildings restoration and perseveration from the demolition ball.

We continued on our tour and entered a central auditorium expecting to see something like Sydney's Town Hall auditorium where I graduated 50+ years ago. We were amazed at what we saw. The auditorium is circular in design like the Pantheon of Rome. It is situated in the centre of the whole building and is surrounded by a circular corridor. It has a central domed ceiling which was recently covered in 21^st century acoustic material which makes it an excellent venue for both pop and classical concerts, school formals and graduations, weddings, citizenship ceremonies, comedians and other entertainers. We sat in the plush seats of the upper floor, looking down upon the beautiful oval floor space and stage area. Both the stage and floor areas are covered in a mixture of blue gum and mahogany floorboards which look as new as the day it was laid. Behind the stage stands a 4300 pipe organ, built in 1891 and relocated to City hall in 1930.

It would have been wonderful to have heard it played today but there are only a few people who have the skill to do this.

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Continuing on the tour we walked through the art gallery where modern artworks were displayed. We witnessed a group of pre-school children touring the artworks in a novel way. Three sets of sextuplet-strollers ferried 18 children quietly and sedately throughout the exhibition. What a great idea! The kids seemed to enjoy their excursion and were a hit with other tourists.

Our guide then took us into a public free zone down in the basement of City Hall where we learnt that this area was used as a sanctuary for providing respite care for returning soldiers and signing up quarters for recruits during WW2. The Red Cross handed out food and clothing parcel to soldiers, repaired damaged uniforms and provided cups of tea and a listening ear to the troops. Graffiti evidence of the soldiers presence was discovered during 2012 when renovation builders uncovered an old toilet wall where soldiers had recorded their names, serial numbers and comments. One incredible fact we learnt was that history researchers have discovered that every soldiers who recorded his name on this section of the wall returned safely to Australia or America. (some signatures were from American soldiers on RNR in Australia. We thought this was an incredible piece of war trivia. We also learnt that between 2010 and 2013 City hall was closed for vital restoration of its deep foundation pylons which were disintegrating from concrete cancer. It is amazing that this huge, heavy 2 storey building had not collapsed since the cement mixture used in the 1920's was made up of salt-ridden concrete which was 600 times weaker than what is used today. Every pylon had to be replaced at a cost of $250 million dollars. Other councils may have decided to demolish the building and rebuild as a considerably substantially cheaper option but Brisbane City Council made the harder choice to preserve this historic building. They are applauded for this today by all Brisbanites. The whole timber floor of the Concert Hall auditorium had to be removed in order for the piers to be replaced. One positive outcome was that a massive industrial kitchen was added in the basement space so that now City Hall can cater for large and small parties requiring catering services. This in itself has provided employment for many citizens and it is also an income source for the council.

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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.