Australia 1- the trip, the room, the place

I just got to go on an amazing trip! Dave had a conference in AUSTRALIA, so I tagged along to see the sites around Brisbane.
We flew Air New Zealand. We rode on at double decker airplane. I don't remember ever riding on one of those before. Really neat. Of course we were in regular class. The food was good, the service great, the flight good. At the end of each flight they passed around a basket of "sweets" -candy-. So nice.
They give you the whole can of drink with out you having to ask for it. The soda is made with cane sugar and not corn syrup. Why is it that it is made with sugar everywhere else in the world but here. Maybe as we discover the ills of corn syrup we will begin to use better things to sweeten our life. Ginger Ale is Ginger Beer and it has a real ginger bite to it.
We were en route for 33 hours and in flight for 19 on the way home. The en route was shorter going but the flight time the same. There was a 7 hour layover in San Fransisco on the way home. Yes, we did some sightseeing. We went through 9 time zones. Jet Lag? YOU BET! I am just getting back to normal. Sort of. We arrived home at 1 am Monday. We started our journey home (on the train to the airport) on Colorado time Sat 4 pm. Australia time we got on the train 8:30 am Sunday and were slotted to arrive home at 11:30 pm Sunday Colorado time. We repeated Sunday. I did not log the trip there as carefully, but I do know that we skipped Sat. We left on Friday evening and arrived on Sunday noon.  It was great flight service.
In the US we flew United. The trip to LA was awful. Small tiny seats I was between Dave and on the other side a nice business guy who was likely the largest person on the plane. Tall as Dave and twice in girth. That was long and uncomfortable. Air New Zealand was a dream compared. Even though we were seated across the aisle there and one behind the other on the way home. There was enough space to sleep, if you could. Great service.
Coming home we had a delayed flight out of Brisbane and also out of Auckland. On time to Denver though! And we had so long in SF it did not matter. 
I posted on the adoption blog about things you should take for comfort on these LONG flights. I can't seem to remember them all every time so I wrote them down. I would have loved to have a few of those wisp toothbrushes.
Money exchange is just abut 98 US cents to $1 Australian Dollars. The cost of things is MUCH more than here. A typical meal you would pay about $10 per person or maybe up to $15 in the USA would be about $25 to $30 there. Just casual dining.
Room rates were really high, there was a BIG time Cricket game.
The week we were there was also the last week of school before summer break which is called Christmas Holiday by all and it is the break between school years. They  will go back to school some time in Feb. and be in the next grade. Families travel during this time. Many families holiday outside of Australia because it is more affordable to do so.
Brisbane is the cleanest city I have ever seen. You know the street sweepers that run too rarely here. Well, they run them every day and there are sidewalk sweeper machines that run every day as well. There is no trash anywhere and no gum spots and tons of rubbish bins so you can use them handily. The transport system is so efficient too. There are trains, buses and ferries and you get a card that you put money on and swipe when you get on and off and it charges the correct fare. Really cool. There are also tons of footpaths and you can even rent a bike in the city for the day with a bike card like the transport card. Really cool. It also does not smell like a big city. They must use different fuel. I know the bus and train are natural gas. There is no heavy exhaust smell like in Denver. I was not at all allergic to the city air. There are a lot of cars too. Hmmmmm. Can we do that here? It would be nice. They drive on the left. Here we have signs that say "stay right except to pass". Their signs say "keep left unless overcoming".
Our hotel. Well, it was a bit of a shock when we first got there. No decorations of any kind, very small, no table, double bed, hard as a rock. But, it was plenty expensive for us. As it turns out it is a fancy YMCA house and business men and women stay there often. They do conferences and club meetings, etc. It was fine and convenient to everything.
We rented a car at first but did not need it as the transport there is so good. So, we returned it. It was quite the experience for Dave to drive on the other side of the road. They also drive fast there. Well, it felt that way in the car and on the bus.
Here are some photos of the hotel, etc. See all on this topic on snapfish here.