With the Adelaide winter clinging on and the desire for warmer weather too much to resist we headed to Queensland for a 10 day break.
Although we left Adelaide on a day when the temperature was in the low 20s the forecast for the remainder of the weak was at best bleak!
With all that behind us, we arrived in Brisbane to a sunny afternoon with the temperature in the mid 20s and a similar forecast for the 3 days we had in Brisbane before we head further north to Port Douglas.
We’d had a few days in Brisbane last year and were very much looking forward to coming back. Brisbane is certainly no longer a big country town, as had been its reputation in the past. It’s a thriving modern wonderful city. It’s a city with a spring in its step and why not – great weather, a vibrant lifestyle and a city set on the Brisbane River.
Our accommodation in the older part of the city overlooked the Botanic Gardens and was just a short walk to the Brisbane Mall, Southbank, and the Riverbank.
We had arranged a trip to Brisbane to coincide with the end of Winter. A chance to escape the cold and wet. However, our late August trip had to be postponed due to illness. No matter our rescheduled trip in late October achieved the same result. We still flew out of Adelaide in dreary wet cold weather. So much for Spring!
Airport security remains a shambles but my years of flying while working gave me lifetime membership of one of the higher frequent flyer higher categories, allowing us priority access and jumping the queue. Those long over and back day trips to Perth had there advantages.
We arrived late morning in Brisbane. As we didn’t know where the airport express train would stop in relation to our accommodation, we caught a cab. It was more expensive but convenient. Our accommodation was private overlooking the botanic gardens.
Other than a day with my favourite person’s sister and her son’s family we had no plans for our week in Brisbane. We’d made some bookings at a few restaurants and downloaded some “things to do” via https://www.visitbrisbane.com.au/ . It gave us an outline for a week that fitted within our Slow Travel mantra.
We hadn’t lined up dinner for night one, although I’d given some thought to The Prawnster. The reviews were so polarised that I wasn’t sure, but after the Ok from my favourite person, we gave it a go.
As the picture shows it’s a boat and as the website says it does seafood and nothing else, except for wine and beer! If you want chips, a salad or dessert the advice on the website is to bring them. It was fabulous! Very casual, with the waiter in shorts and a tee shirt, happy to serve a drink when needed and ready to plonk the food in front of you. We had a mountain of prawns and bugs which came with a couple of disposable wood forks, tartare sauce, a finger bowl, serviettes and a bucket for the shells. We loved it, but as one of the reviews said make sure you’ve read the FAQs before you go so you know what you’ll get.
