We got a late start, but it didn’t matter.

Brisbane wasn’t waiting for us, but it still had room for stragglers.

We started walking from our hotel — we’re staying at the Sofitel Brisbane — toward Queen Street Mall, a few blocks away.

We were heading to the South Bank Parklands, an area on the southern shore of the Brisbane River that has parks, grassy areas, the Wheel of Brisbane and — get this — beaches.

About 11 million people visit South Bank Parklands each year, and it’s easy to see why. There are restaurants and shops and ice cream carts everywhere. It’s a walkable, runable, bikeable stretch, too, and folks were out and about all afternoon.

We were mostly interested in the inner-city beaches, which were not what we had expected. (Video on this coming soon.) It was more like a hotel pool — with sand. Strange.

Now we’re on our way to Chinatown for some dim sum and then taking a river taxi back to South Bank for dinner.

Whenever I find Internet, I’ll post more photos. Thanks for being patient!