Day 41 – February 25, 2011 - Brisbane, Australia

We had a good day in Brisbane, and decided this is our first trip to this city.  We took the shuttle into the city and then caught the hop on/off bus.  Mid-way through the bus tour we were on top of Mt. Coot-Tha, the hill that overlooks downtown Brisbane and the Bay.

The scenery was beautiful so we decided to have lunch at the top.  They are two restaurants; one a café with salads, sandwiches, etc. and a fine restaurant, the Summit.  We decided a leisurely lunch was the order of the day so sat out on the terrace and enjoyed a two hour lunch.   Fred had an nice Sauvignon Blanc and Jan had a nice Pino Gris.  We shared an appetizer plate for two that was very, very good.  The plate had seared scallops on twice cooked pork belly, vanilla cured salmon with a green bean, egg, and potato base, beef and chicken egg rolls with hoisin/ginger sauce and a small cup of carrot ginger spice soup.  It was just the right amount of food for lunch!

We finish our day in Brisbane by riding back to the city on the hop on/off bus, walking back down the pedestrian mall to the shuttle bus stop.  Brisbane is really a great city and there a lot of things we saw that would bring us back for several days.  Like the other cities we have visited in Australia, they have lots of green space, plus they have the Brisbane River flowing through the city in great horseshoe curves.  There was very little evidence of the floods early in the year although the local tour guides said that along the river there were still damaged restaurants and some that were completely washed away.

We met several couples of the Kangaroo Group (an escorted tour from our travel agent); some we knew and some we are just meeting.   We decided to go to La Veranda because we though it was the last night of the Australian Steakhouse Menu.  Turns out they are extending the menu for several days because it has been very popular.  Jan had the meatloaf and Fred had lamp chops…both were delicious and the service was great.

Fred had enough for the day and went to bed, but Jan stayed up to see the show.  Darren Williams is an Australian singer that was billed as “Poperatic”.  It was a combination of songs from light operas and a couple of songs from operas.  He also had some audience participation that the folks down front seemed to enjoy.