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 a plan for our visit. Find the best restaurants and visit them! That meant booking them weeks before to make sure we could get in. We did that for our 2 must visits and then took a chance on a couple of others.

Brisbane shopping is good. The traditional shopping plus the luxury brands we don’t have in Adelaide. Roles are so reversed, growing up Adelaide was bigger than Brisbane but to day Adelaide is smaller.

We decided on a late lunch. We were ok with the two outdoor bars in the Mall, having visited one last time, but I was keen on a wine bar and a quick google search pointed me to Wineology. It was definitely different. Wines are selected from banks of enomatic dispensers. In exchange for your credit card you are given a card and pointed to the banks fo wine to make your own selection. Perhaps a bit gimmicky but with 96 wines to choose from in sizes from tasters to full glasses, it’s a great way to taste a range of wines confident they will be perfect. I tried a Californian Chardonnay that I’d never be confident to buy a bottle of; it was buttery and delicious. Accompanied by a couple of share plates it was a pleasant way to spend an hour or so before heading back through the CBD to our accommodation.

Our first choice for dinner was Agnes, recently voted by Gourmet Traveller, as Australia’s Best Restaurant. As our meal proved it was a well deserved accolade. My favourite person has some dietary issues and our waitress happily worked through a marked up menu to make selection of dishes easy.  Sure our steak was not cheap but it was the best I’ve ever eaten!

In fact , it was quite possibly the best meal I’ve ever eaten, and although pricey it was certainly not the most expensive meal I’ve ever had.

After breakfast the next morning we went to collect our hire car for the short trip to Redlands Bay to see my favourite person’s sister. We picked up what might be the worst hire car I’ve even had. It was completely underpowered and under geared. It was an automatic but felt so often like a manual when you’ve forgotten to change gear. Anyway it did the job. It was cheap and as they say, you get what you pay for!

My favourite person’s sister suggested we visit Coochiemudlo Island. Great suggestion! A short ferry ride and we were on a quiet beach. Truly idyllic. We had a very pleasant beach track walk. Quiet little beaches,  a wetland and endless ocean views.

It’s an island with limited services. There are no shops other than a beach bar and a fish and chip shop. Still there are plenty of people who choose to live on the island and are happy to do their shopping on the mainland and commute to Brisbane. To live in such a delightful place, it seems a price many are prepared to pay.

For  us it was a delightful walk, followed by a simple lunch and glass of white wine at the beach bar.  What more could we have wanted? A thoroughly enjoyable day.

We were too late to drop the car back, so drove back to town parked the car where we were staying  and headed for the Riverside walk and dinner. We hadn’t visited the Riverside last year, so it was a new experience. The boardwalk is just a short walk from the CBD.  It’s a gem. The boardwalk is littered with bars and restaurants. For us our walk concluded at  the heritage listed Howard Smith Wharves. Once an important piece of Brisbane infrastructure built in the Depression, it is now an entertainment precinct dominated by Felon’s Bar, which must seat thousands and care of technology and its barcoded locations, ordering is easy as we found the next day.

The views along the boardwalk and from Howard Smith Wharves are fabulous.

Our next day started with dropping the car back at the hire car depot and a walk through Fortitude  Valley and James Street. It’s an upmarket shopping precinct which suited my favourite person down to the ground – St Agni, Bassike and Lee Mathews to name a few.

Rather than stopping for a  drink and light lunch on James Street, we walked back to Howard Smith Wharves for a glass of wine at Felons. I braved the technology and our wines turned up as ordered. We slowly walked back with one more pit stop for a further glass of wine before we walked through the mall and a quick stop at Cos for me.  Visiting Cos stores whenever we are away has become a bit of a tradition as it’s a store we don’t have in Adelaide.

Chandelier- Rothwells

Dinner was at Rothwell’s Bar and Grill.  It’s a restaurant in the heart of the city, offering a very upmarket bar and restaurant. It’s a modern twist on a traditional restaurant like I used to visit with my parents on very special occasions. It has a great wine list and an excellent sommelier. His suggestion of the Tolpuddle Pinot Noir was an excellent one which complimented a great meal. While the wine was excellent, the highlight was the traditional styled prawn cocktail in a tall glass with iceberg lettuce and cocktail sauce. As a child it was my favourite  dish and it bought back great memories as I ate.

Our last morning before heading onto Port Douglas was a late start and another walk along the river before an early lunch at Sasso Italiano in Woolloongabba. It’s a near city suburb, perhaps most famous for its cricket and AFL ground known colloquially as “The Gabba”. The Adelaide Crows cross town rivals were scheduled to play a final there that night. We found it hilarious that the guests at the next table, to whom we struck up a conversation, had no idea that the game was even on, highlighting how divided our winter sports interests are in Australia. In the South, where we live, AFL dominates and the North it’s Rugby League, with Brisbane’s team the Broncos an NRL powerhouse.

With that our visit to Brisbane was over. I’m looking forward to returning soon