Another Lovely Day!

G’day, Everyone!

Here we are in lovely, sunny Brisbane, our one full-day before we head west to Perth and Margaret River. Dinner last night was great! We’d both been feeling a trifle “steak-ish” so after watching the end of the second day of the 5-day test match, OZ-Sri Lanka, (OZ leading by a BIG margin) we headed back to Eagle Street Wharf to Kingsley’s Steak House for dinner. Big open-air restaurant overlooking the river; just lovely, but I should have brought my sweatshirt, as it did get a bit brisk whenever the wind blew! Bread came out first, just out of the oven, in a round loaf, with soft butter to go with it; just wonderful! They have GREAT butter here! For dinner we both ordered petit fillet mignons, cooked medium-rare with sides that we could share – salad of rocket lettuce and parmesan cheese; incredible mashed potatoes and garlic mushrooms … the fillet came with jus as well as horseradish, and whole grain or regular mustard. Everything was GREAT! Strolled back to the hotel and were in bed by about 9 – so much for the exciting city nightlife.

Up early and out to a very lovely but changeable day…everything from white fluffy clouds and blue sky and sunshine to VERY black clouds and a bit of drizzle – all in the space of a few minutes. Overall, though, lovely and warm. Our hotel is on Anzac Square, and our view out one window is of the War Memorial with the perpetual flame burning. Just a lovely location. Decided to get all-day tickets for the bus/ferries, and managed to do so across the street at the central train station. However, Robert’s quest for a Brisbane bus map proved unsuccessful – whether they actually don’t publish one, or it was too early to find one (everything closed), hard to say! We did find some very good ham and cheese sandwiches to have for breakfast, neither of us being of the eggs-and-bacon school. Eventually wound our way back to the Eagle Street Wharf and caught the double-decker ferry to North Quay. Had a lovely ride – actually didn’t get off at South Bank as had been planned, but rather rode the ferry all the way to the end, and then back the other direction to the other end, and finally got off where we’d started, at Eagle Street. Lovely views of bridge, buildings, boats; Brisbane is a lovely city! One very interesting thing (pictured above) is the walking/biking track that goes over water! We've never seen such a clever idea before!

We did notice something odd, though, for a big city, and that is that lots of the shops and even some of the underground malls are closed for the entire weekend! And it’s not that there is a dearth of people walking the streets, as the Queen’s Street Mall was mobbed! Wondered how it would be possible to stay in business, without being open on the weekends (which would seem like a very good time to be open!) but I guess they must manage somehow!

As it was now lunch time, we returned to the Queen’s Street Mall area and found lunch in the food court next to David Jones department store. Tried Ali Baba’s for kabob-wraps! Very good, actually, although like nothing we’ve had before! Decided to return to the hotel for a nap and hopefully a glimpse of today’s cricket match!!!

Will have lots to do this evening, as I plan on doing a load of wash in the washer/dryer combination (something new for us) and we need to repack, as our plane for Perth via Sydney leaves at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning; presume we’ll need to be up at 4 and out of the hotel at 4:30, as it’s a 25 minute drive to the a/p – although possibly not at that time of the morning!

So, more later!

Lots of love!
m