No excursions today. We took the hop-on/hop-off bus around town and across the river to the Queensland Museum and the Museum of Art. We spent a couple hours in the Queensland Museum, which had a lot of displays of Australian flora and fauna, local history, and a lot of other interesting items. They had an exhibit detailing the lives of three awardees of the Victoria Cross, their equivalent of our Medal of Honor, during World War I. The exhibit included letters written by the men to their loved ones, a history of where they were during their military service, and their award citations. Only one of the three survived the war, and he died in 1942 while again in the Australian Army during WWII. There was a display of oddball items that people collect, including belt buckles, toys, lawn mowers, tractors, and a lot of other interesting stuff. And there was an exhibit detailing the disastrous effects of lost fishing nets on aquatic animals in the seas surrounding Australia. We couldn't take any pictures inside the museum, unfortunately.
We next went to the Museum of Art, which had an interesting collection of paintings going back to the fifteenth century. Over 600 years old and in beautiful condition. They also had an extensive collection of Australian art, pottery and glass from around the world, and lots of other neat stuff. One other display area was Japanese artifacts. Beautiful pottery, painted silk, burial figures; most were 1000 to 1200 years old. All of them were perfect and in pristine condition. Amazing!
We couldn't get any pictures inside the museum display areas, but we did get a few in the entryway and outside the museums:
These were dinosaur fossils, but these particular dinosaurs didn't come from Australia.
This model cicada was outside the Museum of Art. Must be pretty artsy!:
These young ladies were lounging outside the MOA near the waterfall:
This was taken inside the Museum of Art. There is a pool of water in the middle that is almost flush with the floor level, and through the window you can see the waterfall in the previous picture:
And, finally, this is a pic of the hotel we're staying in. It's 82 stories high and is still under construction:
Pat's Paragraph.... As I was taking Roger's picture with the 'ladies', one 'mate' walking by told him to move his hand higher.
The museum had a special traveling display from Afghanistan. Because it was the crossroads for the 'Silk Road' during Marco Polo's time, treasures from all over crossed in this area, to be sent on from here, or received from there. One entire warehouse, which was a cave, was found completely undisturbed. Then a royal city had been escavated near there and more treasures were found in burial sites. Afghanistan officials thought all these treasures had been lost because the Taliban, Russia and other warlords bombed all the museums obliterating all the rare artifacts. But the museum staff secretly hid these treasures in large safes and these hidden safes weren't opened until 2003. Now the treasures are traveling the world, to keep them safe and out of the hands of other militants. The workmanship of these items, all gold and covered with gems and turquoise, are unbelievable in the complexity and detail. No pictures of course.
