Our new Airbnb was lovely. We woke Friday morning and actually made ourselves a good hearty breakfast. Ok I say hearty but mine was spaghetti on toast whilst Nathan mastered the microwaveable scrambled egg on toast for himself! It was a proud moment!We were up early so we could drive the hour or so into Brisbane in order to catch the early bird parking. Parking in these cities is extortionate, everywhere we’ve needed to park so far it’s been so expensive, but if you make the most of the early bird or the all day or twilight parking then you generally get your monies worth!

So why were we in Brisbane so early? Well, it was the day before the Rugby League World Cup Final!!! England vs Australia!! When we saw Australia vs France back when my family were over we definitely didn’t envision England in the final, but they made it!!!There was a festival on for the 1st and 2nd December. I say festival, it was more like a few food stands and a betting arena. The downside? No merchandise! Literally nothing we could buy! Tonga (whom we beat in the semi finals) were there with a stand selling t-shirts!! England had zilch!

We decided to head back later on in the day as found the visitors centre instead. It was located in the most beautiful building!It was stunning. We grabbed a map and continued toward the landmarks in this bustling city. The Christmas tree was situated just outside the Rugby League cup festival area by city hall. Across the street was Albert Street Union Church, a bright white and orange-brown spectacle on the side of the road.We continued towards the treasury casino which was by the river and yet another impressive building in this stunning city.From here it was to the Queen’s Gardens. Designated to the Queensland Heritage Register in 1992, this beautiful area sits opposite the Old State Library.The walk took us down to Parliament House and to the botanical gardens. There are some very quirky buildings throughout the city.All throughout the gardens, lizards, huge lizards roamed freely. They so look like dinosaurs and are horrible looking as we dodged them wherever they were!They had a post to demonstrate where the water got up to in the 1974 and 2011 floods, with chess tables lining the path outside the gardens! We stumbled across goodwill bridge to take us across the river. This river too is past the Queensland Maritime Museum which holds ships and a lighthouse! It was a bit odd peering down at it all from a bridge but I do love a good old navy ship!From here it was round to the southbank parklands. The view back across the river was beautiful and there was even a man made beach with a swimming pool! It was a hot day and yet neither of us had actually brought anything with us to take a dip in the pool! There was even a place called ‘epicurious’ which was a harvest area that allowed people to try fruits etc for free! There were so many different things! We sat by the pool, all the while wishing I was actually in it, admiring the skyline and attempting to catch some sun. I mean our tans were practically non existent by now thanks to the abundance of rain we had encountered! They even had a make shift rainforest with some sort of Nepalese temple! Brisbane is definitely the quirkiest city we have visited and I loved it! We slowly made our way back across Victoria bridge towards the treasury casino. They had a ‘Brisbane’ sign but it was shrouded by building works sadly. Both bridges we crossed gave great views of the city! We were hoping the Rugby festival had started properly by now so ventured back there.We didn’t stay long as there was no merchandise stand and it was only free up until 5pm. Instead we wandered along Queen Street where it felt so incredibly Christmassy! It was beautiful. From here it was only a short walk to St Stephen’s cathedral. The worst part about where we parked was that it was all downhill to the centre. That meant it was all uphill back to the car!! Brisbane was truly a wonderful city! We started to feel Christmassy too 🎄!! It was back to our Airbnb for noodles and eggs.

Until next time…