After a fabulous night’s sleep we woke up and admired the view we couldn’t see last night. We were on the 9th floor and overlooking the Botanic Gardens.
We had booked the buffet breakfast last night (always cheaper when you book the night before) and headed down there at 9.30.
At 11.00, Rick and Penny (Colin’s cousin who we met at his 60th) who live in Brisbane arrived in their car to collect us and give us a bespoke tour!
The first thing we learnt was that the roads in the city were on a grid system with male road names running one way and women road names intersecting them at right angles.
Our city tour started with a drive out to Mount Coot-Tha to the lookout. What a fabulous panaromic view over Brisbane.
We then drove to the South Bank and parked up. We had a stroll along here through the parklands along the river edge and then stopped in the Beer Garden for a drink.
Next we caught the City Cat, a boat that is basically a water bus, every journey costs around 25p. Penny had thoughtfully bought along 2 gocards for us already loaded for us to use on the Brisbane transport system.
We only travelled a short distance north getting off at Howard Smith Wharves where we had lunch in this fabulous beer hall called Felons which seats about 700 at full capacity. After a hearty lunch of burgers and chips washed down with more beer from the brewing company it was back on the City Cat.
Alighting back at the South Bank we walked further along the Clem Jones Promenade past the beach and swimming pool and round the rainforest area.
After returning to the car we then got driven to Kangaroo point on the opposite side of the river to the Botanic Gardens where we stopped for a final drink in a cafe over looking Brisbane River whilst the sun went down.
Rick and Penny then dropped us back at our hotel around 6.30. It was so weird it was already really dark but we understand it gets light around 4.30am. Queensland doesn’t follow the daylight saving hours so the clocks don’t change here.
We then decided to check out the facilities of the hotel so visited the gym, laundry, swimming pool and then bar to make use of the first of our 10 free drinks!
Feeling a tiny bit peckish we left the hotel to investigate some of the local pubs, it was only 8.30 but most had stopped serving. Luckily we found the Winghaus which still had its kitchen open so we ordered 2 pints and a box of wings to share for a light snack whilst watching some basketball on TV.
After we had a walk over Kangaroo Bridge, a pedestrian and cycle bridge that only opened Dec 24, before returning and walking through the end of the Botanic Gardens to our hotel.
