6 posts tagged “brisbane”

Storm on Mt Coot-tha

We decided to go to dinner at the Summit Restaurant at the top of Mount Coot-tha, overlooking Brisbane, because Alex had been wanting to go up there, but hadn't made it yet. It wasn't too far a drive (same side of the city as Toowong), but by the time we wound our way to the top, a rain storm had blown up, so we had to wait in the car for a little while. Then it got worse, with branches flying around and hitting the car, and the rain lashing at the windows, and very green, always a bad sign...

After sitting in the car for about 20 minutes, it settled to a simple downpour, so I dashed up the sidewalk (which ended up going all the way around the building) to check on things like reservation requirements and menu. The storm had knocked the power out, so they were running on a generator, but that only meant they couldn't do certain things on the menu, so I ran back down the sidewalk (getting even drenched-er) to tell those guys to come on. It turned out to be a delicious dinner, and we were pretty much the only ones there, since apparently a tree had fallen across the roadway up the mountain. We were having the "early bird" menu, which is a 3-course prix-fixe menu with limited selections, but all good. I had the "Giant Ravioli of Buffalo Ricotta & Spinach in Tuscan tomato and basil coulis w crisp coppa and shaved parmesan", and for dessert "Cardamon Brulee w Armagnac prunes and cinnamon tuille"

Brisbane from Mt Coot-tha

After dinner, and some espressos in the neighboring cafe, the storm had died down to a drizzle, so we gazed at the city lights under an ominous storm cloud.

(As it turned out, this was the worst storm in 20 years - major flooding, power outages, closures, etc - and it was followed by another two storms later in the week after we had headed down the coast.)

Wordsmith Cafe

After a delicious "brekky" at the Wordsmith cafe next to the bookstore on campus...

Alex took us by City Cat to the Saturday open-air markets on the South Bank and at an area called Riverside. The South Bank market had a special area that day for booths from the Granite Mountain region (wines and cheeses), so we did some wine tasting (surprise...) at a couple booths, and bought a bottle of Verdelho with plans of drinking it out on the deck of our lake house later in the week.

VERY hot and humid! We stopped for some ginger beers and watched the band Jigger play for a bit.

We also talked for quite a while with an aboriginal artist, Charlie Chambers, who had a booth there - he explained to us the meanings of all his pieces... very interesting! His carved emu eggs were especially fascinating.

Then we headed back to our apartment for a little siesta and deciding about dinner.

After 4 months of seeing photos only of things like surfing, frisbee, and travels, we finally got to see the more mundane side of Alex's life here in Brisbane...

Bicycle Parking

Al and I woke up with the sun at 4:30 (yipes!), and then sat around and read our books till it was time to walk down and catch the City Cat at 8:23 as arranged last night. We had to buy our own passes this time, but luckily the language isn't an issue - only the currency is a little confusing (since the largest denomination, $2, is the smallest coin). We rode to the Gyatt Park pier, and waited in a little gazebo in the park for Alex to turn up - it was already quite hot out at 8:30am, so we wanted some shade!

Alex walked us to his apartment, just because I wanted to see it - it seemed quite nice - I especially liked the 2 patios.

UQ sign

Then we walked to the Uni (University of Queensland), where he's been going all this time, and he showed us around the campus. It was pretty empty, since finals finished up this past week and most students had gone home for the summer. I thought it a very pretty campus.

Brisbane late afternoon

For dinner we decided to go to a brewpub in the city, so after showering and changing, we walked to a bus stop since Alex thought that might be quicker to get to where we wanted to go. After walking up and down Albert St a couple times, we found the address the brewpub was supposed to be at, and found a torn sign on the door saying they had closed down in late September. Rats.

Alex suggested we try the South Bank then, since we had planned to go there for dessert after dinner anyway. We walked across a bridge, and then along the river and up into the South Bank area.

I really like this trellised walkway that meanders all through this area - it's covered in a pinky-purple flowered vine. After dark, the curved posts are lit.

We decided to have dinner at Amici's, where Alex had eaten before. It was OK, though the service was even slower than normal (apparently), the Shiraz I chose was pretty bad (too green maybe?), and I was kind of falling asleep in my seat by then.

Dessert, on the other hand, was fantastic! We debated a bit over whether we wanted coffees or gelati or what, so we walked along King St a bit, and decided to stop in to Batavia, which Alex had heard was a really cool tea shop, just to see it. As it turned out, the menu included a number of coffee/ice cream combinations, so we sat in the comfy cushioned wicker chairs out on the sidewalk, and ordered. I got a mochagatto, which was a big bowl of ice cream, with a pitcher each of espresso and hot chocolate to pour over it... mmm! Al got an affogatto (similar but only espresso) plus a ricotta tart, and Alex got the iced mocha mainly because it had 5 things to mix to taste (ice cream, milk, cold espresso, cold chocolate, and sugar syrup). Each of our selections was served on a bamboo tray with fine china pitchers, along with a glass of refreshing lemon-mint water. The rest of the menu looked really good, too, but of course we'd just eaten. Excellent excellent choice - highly recommended!

Brisbane River at night from City Cat

Then we took the City Cat back to the stop near our apartment, and Alex continued on it to the stop near his apartment.

Then we fell into bed - a very long but fun day. :-)

Toowong Villas - web

Our home for the two nights in Brisbane was the Toowong Villas complex in the Toowong (te-WONG) neighborhood. We had a studio apartment with one bed (since Alex was still at his own apartment), which was on a lower level, but with a little private walled patio out back. The room had a nice seating area, table, desk, little fridge, electric kettle, microwave, dishes. Wireless internet was available for $14/hour, so I bought an hour in order to check email and be able to look up ferry routes, restaurants, etc. No breakfast was included, but there was covered parking, a plus in the hot Brisbane summer. A nice-looking pool was nestled in the lush gardens, but we were too busy seeing the sights to use it. All in all, it was a decent place, and a pretty good value at A$115/night, though the walls were kind of thin between apartments.

Cafe in Toowong

After Alex met us at the airport (much joy on both sides!), we picked up our rental car, and found our apartment in the Toowong area. We left the car parked there, and walked to a cafe for a brunch of sandwiches.

Then we bought all-day passes for the City Cat (the river catamaran ferry), and headed into Brisbane City on it.

Our first stop was the gardens around the Queensland University of Technology, which included a boardwalk through a mangrove grove (?) along the Brisbane river.

Queen St

Next, we walked to Queen St - the pedestrian area - and stopped for beers at the Pig 'n Whistle - that hit the spot, as it was then midday and very hot and humid!

Christmas already

After a bit of shopping (took a while, but Al found some reasonable swim trunks), it was back on the City Cat and back to our apartment for a little relaxation before dinner...