It's Christmas time Down Under!
Isn't it great to review Christmas and remember how blissfully we weren't aware what the year 2020 would bring to us?
Maybe this post will bring it all back to you 😌
We arrived in Scarborough Marina on the 21st of December.
It's not the most romantic place to celebrate Christmas, but we still have nice sunsets, warm weather, good restaurants, a perfect train connection to Brisbane and we're close enough to civilisation to have Uber!
Also we needed to pick up my sister-in-law with her cute baby boy! Luckily we arrived a day early as so did she! 😏
The girls love giving money to the street artists 😍
George Square and city hall:
Theatre:
Christmas theme well exploited 😅
Roma Street Parkland: one of the most beautiful parks we've ever seen!
Beautiful playgrounds to practise their teamwork 😍
And all this just in the city!
Next an illustration of a nice Christmas Story:
And then all dressed up it's time for bubbles and presents!
A bit weird to do it with 35°C instead of in front of the cosiness of the fireplace, but I have to admit we're already quite used to it 😊
We didn't know these guys could swim!
26nd of December 2019.
Scarborough is again a perfect place to take the train up to the Australian Zoo. Steve Irwin has been on our television screens when we were kids, so we were also very excited! 😊
A free shuttle bus with very funny driver picks you up at the train station!
So I'll just show you the animals we found most special, like these tiny dinosaur like lizards!
Off course it's not a Steve Irwin zoo without plenty of crocodiles!
And what's also amazing is the tribute to the lost dinosaurs. Very educative!
And entertaining!
The Spinosaur
The Pterosaur
And then we discovered the Cassowary. It's also like a living dinosaur! Look at his paws!
The snake section is quite scary too. This is an albino Burmese Python. Could eat all 7 of us at once I guess!
Maybe this post will bring it all back to you 😌
Also we needed to pick up my sister-in-law with her cute baby boy! Luckily we arrived a day early as so did she! 😏
So first things first. We have Daphné to babysit now and the two girls to play with their new "boy toy". So we go shopping. 4 people, 6 carts and enough to pass Christmas and New Year with 8 people! 😎
Christmas "spirit" in the mall (Scarborough is close to Brisbane, but still quite far 😋).
23rd of December 2019
The last real big city we visited was Panama, so we were quite eager to get into Brisbane! It's a wonderful city and we could easily live here! Great marriage between old and new. Smart but laid back. Plenty of beautiful parks, free city hopper by the river, playgrounds, ...
Preview of the city buildings:
City hall auditorium:
National Bank:
A view along the river with the City Hopper!
Eastbank museum and Riverside Green playground:
Maritime museum:
South Brisbane Memorial Park:
Brisbane anchorage. Quite full!!!
And Santa on a Jet Ski 😍
The river towards Moreton Bay, very luxury!
And back up towards the centre of the city...
A very old fig tree survives in the centre of the city! Beautiful!
And then it's time for Christmas. The 24th of December 2019. Last year it was with my brother and his family in Martinique. This year it's with the Janssens' family in Australia 😎 Quite amazing and we are blessed to have them around for the holidays!
It's a bit crowded, but we still have enough space to make it work 😌 Entertaining the children while the grown ups prepare dinner: A house of gingerbread and lots of sugar!
From team LouiseAnna: homemade presents with shells and pumice stones from the Pacific 😋
And of course some local must haves!
And from our family: beautiful shirts for team LouiseAnna 😍
Even under the grey and windy sky, a very nice Christmas indeed!
I guess our girls are hungry 😍
Seems custom here to have crackers and play some games ... So we try to keep up with local tradition.
Hard to keep the kids at the table, but I guess that's everywhere the same, no? 😅
And even the imminent rain could not spoil the party 😎
25th of December 2019
The pouring rain drew us out of the boat and into the city. With everything closed, we explored the city Botanic gardens. Another pearl of this beautiful city.
Deserted and grey, but we managed to find a nice restaurant that was open.
I got busted saying something silly at the counter in Flemish ... and the waiter came from Antwerp uuurgh that's already the 3rd time I'm choosing the wrong language to gossip in 😂!
Scarborough is again a perfect place to take the train up to the Australian Zoo. Steve Irwin has been on our television screens when we were kids, so we were also very excited! 😊
A free shuttle bus with very funny driver picks you up at the train station!
Majestic Galapagos turtle!
The Koala's are sooooo cute!
As is the Wallaby petting zoo 😍
Mommy what's he doing?!
The Tasmanian Devil actually also looks quite cute!
They like a thrill in this zoo:
And ice cream too 😅
And with the buys of some more fluffy animals, it's time to call it a day.
And the 27th of December 2019, we say goodbye to the grandparents at Pirates Park overlooking the Moreton Bay...
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