It appears I didn’t cancel my alarm from Uluru last Sunday so it went off at 4.35! But Dave then had his alarm set for 5 to see the Arsenal FA Cup match – we won’t mention the result – so all in all a slightly unsettled night.
New alarms were set for 9 and we got up shortly after. It was still very warm but it was overcast so our plan for a morning around the pool changed to go and explore Fortitude Valley and some other things on my list.
This was meant to be our original leaving day so we checked out of the room, settled the bill and then checked straight back in again (same room), receiving more free drink vouchers!
We caught a bus at the rear of the hotel for the short journey. I had found a heritage walking trail so we set off to find the 20 ‘things’ of note in Fortitude Valley. (Not sure Dave thought most of them were really note-worthy!) It didn’t take long to walk around them and we had definitely found the more seedier area of Brisbane. Towards the end we did see a lovely rooftop bar so headed there for refreshment once finished.
Feeling a bit peckish we then headed down to the Howard Smith Wharves under the Story Bridge to check the other restaurants out and ended up in Mr. Percivals right on the bank of the river. We chose chilli bug pizza and skinny fries to share. The weather was alternating between full sun and cloudy with wind so the restaurant kept opening and closing the roof blinds.
We then walked back to the city to check out Post Office Square, Anzac Square and then onto King George Square where the Museum of Brisbane is housed. We popped inside and saw the Precious collection which is basically some unusual collections that individuals hold which have never been on public display before, such as dental equipment, Olympic trading cards, axes and beaded purses to name but a few.
Next on my list was the Spectacle Gardens in Roma Street Parkland. It was a bit of a walk and we had to walk through Wickham Park first which seemed to be another area where homeless people lived. The gardens themselves were very nice with lots of water features and we saw some water dragons (lizards) and more of the famous bin chickens.
It was a 30 minute walk back to the hotel and my ankle was beginning to hurt. There were no public transport options available so we took the plunge, downloaded the Lime app and grabbed two scooters! It was meant to be a straight road back but the scooters suddenly stopped as we had inadvertently scooted into a pedestrian area so had to walk them back out! Then having detoured we decided to scoot through the Botanic Gardens.
The journey took 24 mins so only fractionally quicker and it set us back £13, so not the cheapest, but definitely good fun!
Back in the hotel we grabbed our daily free drink and then headed to the room to freshen up.
We headed out to an English pub tonight the Pig ‘n’ Whistle, where the food was cheapish but the music dire! (Is that really what they think the English want to listen to?)
Next a little walk back to The Star Hotel to go up to the viewing deck to see it at night time. It wasn’t as crowded but there was so much reflection off the quite dirty glass it was hard to get decent pictures.
Final stop, down to floor five to the casino, there was quite a queue for people to show their id, but for some reason the two of us got waived straight in!
The casino was fairly large and quite busy, it had a nice atmosphere as we walked around and we saw some new games such as the big wheel. We didn’t stay long and then walked the short distance back to our hotel.
