![\"David](\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/David-washing-his-hands.jpg\" "\\"David")
David in the Unisex Public Conveniences<\/p><\/div>\n
Parklands again and explored some more of that.\u00a0 We were rather shocked by the public toilets there.\u00a0 It is best to describe them as having no outside wall \u2013 you know the ones that say \u2018men\u2019 \u2018women\u2019 and divide the two?\u00a0 Nothing of the sort, just a single wall with the basins on, open air both sides of that and then the stall doors behind you with both male and female icons on them.\u00a0 You\u2019ll be grateful to know the stalls had walls on the other 3 sides, plus the door makes 4!!!\u00a0 I found it really<\/p>\n
![\"Roma](\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Roma-Street-Parklands-public-toilets.jpg\" "\\"Roma")
Roma Street Parklands public toilets<\/p><\/div>\n
entertaining to be able to watch David wash his hands in a public bathroom and neither of us were where we shouldn\u2019t be.<\/p>\n
We also discovered a huge waterfall in the Parkalnds, about 10 \u2013 12 feet high by about 30 feet wide, just straight down into a catching trough a little below pavement height.\u00a0 It was man-made, but even so we loved the noise and the spray that it made.<\/p>\n
![\"Roma](\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Roma-Street-Parklands-Water-Wall.jpg\" "\\"Roma")
Roma Street Parklands Water Wall<\/p><\/div>\n
We saw what I will call a Hello Wall in the park too.\u00a0 It was quite long, but partly obscured by bushes which was a bit of a shame because it was brightly painted with children of varying nationalities climbing trees and other similar things.\u00a0 Its biggest appeal was a mass of big sunflowers which each had the word \u2018hello\u2019 painted in a different language in the middle of it.\u00a0 We recognised quite a few,<\/p>\n
![\"'Hello](\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Hello-Wall.jpg\" "\\"'Hello")
'Hello Wall' - Roma Street Parklands<\/p><\/div>\n
or wouldn\u2019t have known the significance of course, and could only wonder what language some of the others were, never mind how to pronounce them.\u00a0 It was a cheery little touch.<\/p>\n
We left the park via a different exit than usual and went exploring to look for a restaurant for tonight\u2019s dinner.\u00a0 There were a few, mostly below other hotels, with similar menus to our own; yuk.\u00a0 But we came across one with a really nice looking menu at reasonable prices and it was very close to our hotel so decided on dinner there and went \u2018home\u2019 to waste some time until it was decent to eat.<\/p>\n
Part of the time wasting involved going up to the roof-top to the swimming pool.\u00a0 David put one toe in and declared it freezing so we went in the spa instead, which was at least really warm.\u00a0 Just as David got out, a Japanese man came along who didn\u2019t speak any English and we couldn\u2019t explain that we\u2019d had our 10 minutes that you\u2019re supposed to stay in it, so I stayed a bit longer to be polite.\u00a0 David got all dry and then it began to rain quite heavily.\u00a0 The Japanese man bolted for the gym room which baffled me cos we were sitting up to our necks in water anyway, so what\u2019s a little rain.\u00a0 I then got out but the wind was beyond freezing, and by the time I walked the very short distance to where David was standing under shelter with the towels, I was shivering furiously and my teeth were chattering.\u00a0 I grabbed 3 towels and huddled them around me, top, middle and legs, saying to David \u201cRub me, for goodness sake!\u201d\u00a0 He just thought I was a big sook making a fuss.\u00a0 And wouldn\u2019t you know?\u00a0 In the many times we\u2019d used the lift to date we\u2019d been alone, but this time with me dressed in wet hair and 3 towels, it was half full of businessmen in suits and one primly dressed lady.\u00a0 I saw the shock in one of the men\u2019s faces as he took in what he was looking at, but that\u2019s tuff ain\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
Back to the safety of our own room, and a warm shower before dressing for dinner.\u00a0 This restaurant was under a hotel, as in basement level, but did have windows along one wall where a narrow, long trench had been dug to give them a little area for a couple of outdoor tables.\u00a0 It was walled with limestone rocks and had a few plants growing in them so wasn\u2019t unpleasant to look out on.\u00a0 We had a drinky poo each and the food was delicious; David had a chicken dish with a sauce and lots of vegetables as well as chips, and I had a prawn and pasta dish.\u00a0 I decided that I would have the chicken if we came back the next night, which was our joint plan.\u00a0 It was a busy little place and the staff were really friendly and nice.<\/p>\n
And so to bed with only 1\u00bd days left of our holiday.<\/p>\n
Fri 5th<\/sup> This morning we decided to breakfast at the same restaurant that we\u2019d had dinner at the night before.\u00a0 We were met by a frazzled looking lady who apologised for the delay but got to us soon enough.\u00a0 She seemed the same way the whole time we were there but there didn\u2019t appear to be any reason for it \u2013 maybe something at home of course.\u00a0 We ordered our breakfast which included fruit juice to start, the meal, and coffee at the end, and it was very nice indeed.\u00a0 We could hear the chef in the kitchen singing to the radio, so he was happy enough.\u00a0 He came out once and did something helpful for the lady though.\u00a0 After that we popped back to the hotel to gather our walking things and set off to who knows where.<\/p>\n Firstly we walked through the Roma Street Parklands again and this time went to the far right where we took what they call the Rainforest Walk.\u00a0 This was lovely and involved a tree-top walkway as well as a path down into a little valley full of ferns and such things.\u00a0 From here we took a different exit from the park but there were apartments being built so we had to curve round again to where the caf\u00e9 was near the railway station, still within the park.\u00a0 Then through the station itself to see what that was like.\u00a0 It was like Perth station really and a far cry from the size of Sydney\u2019s.\u00a0 We watched out to see if they had any double-decker trains as Sydney had done, but again it was like Perth and they didn\u2019t have any.<\/p>\n From here we just wandered toward the river because there was a building right next to the river that David could see from the hotel balcony that he wanted to get to, to see what it was.\u00a0 As we walked along it was getting overcast and began to rain a bit.\u00a0 We just carried on walking as we\u2019d seen all the natives doing when it had shed a few spots on other occasions, but this time the one walker and one cyclist that we passed had hurried to shelter and waited for it to pass.\u00a0 Odd.\u00a0 A little later it started to rain a bit heavier so we found a bridge and sheltered somewhat under that, but it was massively high so had limited use.\u00a0 Then it stopped spitting, or almost, so we carried on.\u00a0 We walked a long way and it started to rain again and started to get heavy enough that I got the umbrellas out of the backpack and we put those up.\u00a0 And it just rained steadily.\u00a0 My feet were getting wet even through my shoes \u2013 the very same pair I\u2019d worn in Sydney and it had rained heavily and they\u2019d gotten wet through.\u00a0 We were then wet from the knees down as well as our feet and it was starting to not be so much fun, but we carried on walking anyway.\u00a0 There were very limited exits back up to the road slightly above us anyway, and we were still hoping it would clear up.<\/p>\n Eventually we could see the building David had wanted getting closer, but when we got there it was still closed.\u00a0 We\u2019d just set our hearts on a cuppa and maybe a cake, and although it was a restaurant as we\u2019d thought, it was a lunch and dinner style one, not a caf\u00e9.\u00a0 We stood forlornly under its front porch, knowing there were staff inside setting up for lunch, but it was only about 11am so we weren\u2019t willing to wait for an hour, huddled where we were, still getting spray from the rain.\u00a0 It was called Oxley\u2019s On The River \u2013 I\u2019ve been asked for it since we got back, and I don\u2019t quite<\/span> think we were dressed in the style they would prefer even if it had been open.<\/p>\n David left me where I was for a minute while he went to peek at a bridge on our right a little way up the path, and then came back and said that it appeared to lead to civilisation and we may as well give it a shot.\u00a0 We went under the road which had run parallel to the river the whole way and came up some stairs the other side at a tall office building with nowhere really to shelter from the rain, so we went down a ramp to the road and along just a bit when we saw a sign in a courtyard between 2 parts of a building that said \u2018coffee and carvery\u2019 or something along those lines.\u00a0 That\u2019ll do, we thought, and came across a really nice caf\u00e9 hidden at the back of these buildings.\u00a0 I guess it serviced the offices round about, but it was not small and had a decent variety of foods.\u00a0 We\u2019d been looking for an ATM the whole time of our journey this morning but one doesn\u2019t often<\/span> find them on river banks (wrong kind of bank!) so we hadn\u2019t used one yet.<\/p>\n As we finally walked through to the comforts of an inside room, dreaming of hot drinks, I suddenly had a panic that we even had enough money to buy one, but then remembered the $50 note that I keep stashed for emergencies, and this sure was an emergency.\u00a0 David had a coffee and I had a hot chocolate \u2013 it was that kind of weather \u2013 and we sipped and stalled, waiting for the weather to clear.\u00a0 We were fascinated when a girl arrived with a huge, double-decker trolley with cakes and fruit juice, chips and sandwiches on, and started to unload it.\u00a0 Obviously they go around the offices themselves with this trolley.\u00a0 How wonderful!\u00a0 A little later another girl arrived with another one as well.\u00a0 We thought this was a marvelous idea.\u00a0 But still it rained.<\/p>\n We decided that we had no option but to carry on walking, or call a taxi, and we are not pikers, but to his credit David did ask the chap behind the counter where we were on our map before we left.\u00a0 We had walked way further than we had realised.\u00a0 The restaurant we\u2019d thought we were heading for had been up on the road so we had not even seen it.\u00a0 The chap told us that the \u2018coffee strip\u2019 that most tourists head for was back towards the city a bit and then turn left, so we went out and put up the umbrellas again.\u00a0 David laughed his head off when mine immediately fell shut again but I suppose I deserved this cos I\u2019d been laughing at him getting wet from one part of his umbrella that didn\u2019t stretch out to the end of its spoke.<\/p>\n Before too long the rain was coming down heavily again and it was even starting to get cold.\u00a0 We went under an office block into its parking area so I could get my jumper out of the backpack and put that on but even so my back began to ache badly as it does when I\u2019m cold.\u00a0 Not very far further was the coffee strip in the suburb of Milton.\u00a0 We\u2019d seen a Milton Shopping Centre on our map but not realised it would be a street rather than a building.<\/p>\n Milton's Eiffel Tower<\/p><\/div>\n On a better day it would have been lovely, but we, and the other few people walking around, pretty much trudged by without taking as much of the view in as we could.\u00a0 There were heaps and heaps<\/span> of cafes and restaurants all down one side of the road with large outdoor areas just covered with a canvas roof or similar.\u00a0 Had we been on the other side of the road instead we\u2019d have seen a replica Eiffel Tower sticking out through one of them which was about 3 floors high.\u00a0 I\u2019ve since been asked for a Blue Grotto Caf\u00e9 in that strip.\u00a0 If I\u2019d have known about that one I\u2019d have had a look because I\u2019ve been to the real Blue Grotto in Italy and it was a memory I will treasure for ever.<\/p>\n But, the weather was obviously set now to rain until forever and with how wet our feet and lower legs were it was not a pleasant thought to go back the way we\u2019d come, or to explore a different way home.\u00a0 And I was starting to get a bit grumpy with my back because I could barely move to walk and it was interfering with my breathing.\u00a0 According to the little map there was a train station a little further ahead so I was happy to throw in the bravery towel and find out how to catch a QR. (Queensland Rail.)\u00a0 There were 4 platforms \u2013 1 this side, 2 in the middle under an underpass, and 1 through the underpass and out the other side \u2013 but did any of them say which one you needed to head in which direction?\u00a0 You bet your last sock they didn\u2019t.\u00a0 I just could not walk any further and started to get cross with David because he wanted to bounce around to all 4 platforms and expected me to want to bounce with him.\u00a0 We settled on going to the middle 2 in the hope that that was the right one, and I sat on a bench while David went to find out.\u00a0 I am very grateful to say that it was the correct platform and we only had a few minutes to wait for the train.\u00a0 Once it arrived I took it back that they were like Perth ones \u2013 you had to open the door manually.\u00a0 I was stunned.\u00a0 How archaic!\u00a0 We giggled and carried on like school kids on the train and the locals looked down their noses at us a bit hehehe.\u00a0 But it was only 2 stops before we left them in peace.<\/p>\n Here’s a picture of another waterfall at Roma Street from a day with nicer weather.<\/p>\n Roma Street Parklands Waterfall<\/p><\/div>\n As I\u2019ve said before, the caf\u00e9 in the Parklands was right near the station and as the rain was still going we decided to lunch in there.\u00a0 Well, at one of the few spots in there that wasn\u2019t getting wet anyway.\u00a0 In all honesty neither of us was hungry and nothing on the menu appealed, but once the staff have seen you looking, and chatted to you, you\u2019re rather committed, so we both chose something we didn\u2019t want.\u00a0 It was better than walking in the rain anyhow.\u00a0 Between us we\u2019d chosen bread\/toast with pate and dips of all kinds plus some little crisp things, so we ate the dips with the crisps and one slice of bread each and packed up the rest of the bread \u2013 about four, thick, homemade slices it was \u2013 in a napkin and put it in my handbag.\u00a0 It had a caraway seed flavour and was kind of nutty and very filling.<\/p>\n It was still raining so we decided we had no choice but to man the umbrellas once more and get back to the hotel.\u00a0 We went via the steep staircase up the side of the hill because it got us to the road faster than taking the steady slope through the park, and soon made it back to the hotel for a warm shower.\u00a0 It was only about 2pm but we put the telly on and chatted while idly watching whatever it was that was on.\u00a0 Part of what was on were weather warnings, saying that a cyclone was hitting north and south of Brisbane and worse was to come.\u00a0 We were on the leeward side of the hotel so felt as safe as we could be, but I made David sit<\/span> on the little verandah when he went out for his naughty habits cos I didn\u2019t want a wind gust to carry him away if he was standing up.\u00a0 We were on the 4th<\/sup> floor, but I only went out there once; there was something unsafe feeling about it and its little metal railing.\u00a0 There were apparently homes everywhere without power and I wondered if we would get evacuated if the power went out, because we used to when I worked at Murdoch University \u2013 they said it wasn\u2019t safe if there was no power to operate the fire alarms as you can\u2019t trust the battery backup.<\/p>\n Time ticked on, the TV programs passed, the weather warnings continued, complete with pictures of huge surf on the Gold Coast.\u00a0 A message from the hotel reception popped up at one stage saying that the restaurant was particularly booked for tonight and bookings were recommended if you wanted to eat there.\u00a0 We decided that we were not going out to dinner, but didn\u2019t want their food either so we got out the 4 slices of bread that we\u2019d bought back from the caf\u00e9 at lunch time.\u00a0 We still had some margarine in the fridge, so just applied that and had the thick bread slices.\u00a0 Funny meal to have on a holiday, but walking in the rain under overcast skies and expecting the cyclone before we got back did not make an enticing thought.\u00a0 Strangely enough we got hooked on a film and stayed up later than we had for any other night of our holidays.\u00a0 I sent Nathan an SMS at one point and he rang me back because all his calls are free on his mobile after 9pm Perth time.\u00a0 It was 11pm for us, but we chatted for a while and he made a conference call so I got to chat to him and Dan at the same time.\u00a0 I enjoyed that and we discussed our arrival time back in Perth for the next evening.<\/p>\n Sat 6th<\/sup> We awoke to bright blue skies and the sun shining beautifully.\u00a0 It was all over and we hadn\u2019t heard a sound.\u00a0\u00a0 We packed our cases, got ready to go out, checked out and put our baggage in storage at the hotel, and then set off to enjoy our last morning.\u00a0 We ended up deciding to catch a bus up to the Mt Coot-tha lookout, which we would have done the day before if not for the weather.\u00a0 We went to the phone box across the road and David rang the public transport number and got details of which bus and where from and we set off to the street she\u2019d told him in the city.\u00a0 As we walked along I said \u201cI forgive you, Brisbane\u201d as it was a beautiful day.\u00a0 We got to the road that the lady had said but she hadn\u2019t said which bus stop to go to, and we weren\u2019t to know there would be a choice so he hadn\u2019t asked.\u00a0 David found one bus and hopped on to ask the driver\u2019s advice, who sent us to the next street back with directions to go to the 2nd<\/sup> bus stop on our right.\u00a0 We did that, but there was very little information as to which run stopped where and no mention of the number we wanted.\u00a0 My back was aching again so I sat at one of the stops while David walked up the street to see if any of the others had any numbers on them.\u00a0 We\u2019d walked up and down 3 times already with no joy.\u00a0 He came back with no news so we decided to go to the main bus station under the Queen Street Mall and see the information kiosk there.<\/p>\n That done, the driver had given us a bum steer and we had been on the right road when we asked him, we just hadn\u2019t been far enough up the street.\u00a0 We found the stop but had about 40 minutes before the bus came so decided to go for a coffee.\u00a0 The bus trip was very<\/p>\n Milton's Eiffel Tower from the Bus<\/p><\/div>\n pleasant and we drove down the coffee strip road in Milton, which is when we did<\/span> see the Eiffel Tower \u2013 hadn\u2019t noticed it the day before in the rain, as I said.\u00a0 The journey was very steep and winding from here and I was amused by the way a cemetery was set up on the sides of two very steep hills at right angles to one another \u2013 the graves were at ground level at one end and raised by about 2 feet the other.\u00a0 Who ever heard of retaining walls on graves?<\/p>\n Soon enough we reached the Mt Coot-tha Lookout and hopped off the bus.\u00a0 It was indeed a wonderful view from up there.\u00a0 We were quite close to the city but could see the whole city block plus all the surrounding suburbs spread out before us.\u00a0 There was a map which showed where the important features were and apparently you can see the ocean from up there, although we didn\u2019t.\u00a0 One place worthy of note was Griffith University campus in the suburb of Nathan so I took a photo of the sign<\/p>\n Mt Coot-tha Lookout View<\/p><\/div>\n with the view in the background to give to my Nathan.\u00a0 I\u2019d known about the suburb of course but it was nice to have something concrete to share with Nathan.\u00a0 Poor Daniel was the only one that I couldn\u2019t find a souvenir for with his name on.<\/p>\n One couple asked me to take a photo of them and they had English accents so I asked them where they were from.\u00a0 Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.\u00a0 I was so shocked as that\u2019s where David\u2019s Dad was born.\u00a0 How amazing!\u00a0 They did not have Gloucestershire accents though, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n We decided to have lunch at the kiosk which was rather busy, so looked at the restaurant menu but it was hoity toity fare so we went back to the queue at the kiosk and got talking to a man who was waiting for his food.\u00a0 He invited us to join him and his wife which was lovely and we sat and talked nineteen to the dozen for about an hour and a half.\u00a0 Strange isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 They were a Brisbane couple and had just gone up there for a day trip \u2013 don\u2019t know if they\u2019d planned on spending it talking with strangers, but we got on so well.\u00a0 We then went for one last look at the view (I would love to have seen it at night) and went to wait for the bus.<\/p>\n There\u2019s very little left worthy of report.\u00a0 We went back to the hotel to get our bags and sat waiting for the airport transfer bus, got to the airport and had a drink and then onto the flight home.\u00a0 Back home to our loved ones.\u00a0 And it was so good to see them all waiting for us as we came off the plane.<\/p>\n Both of us prefer to always explore new territory rather than take the same route back that we took out.\u00a0 I guess we achieved that during this holiday in a major way, starting at Sydney and finishing in Brisbane 1,000 kms north.\u00a0 With the inland tour to Bathurst as well, plus other explorations along the way (some deliberate and some not) we did over 1,500 kms in the week with the campervan.<\/p>\n The End of our Sydney to Brisbane Drive<\/p>\n Please feel free to leave a comment in the fields below before leaving this page. Email addresses will not be used in any way, nor displayed for anyone to see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Queen Street Mall we walked back via a different route to the Roma Street Parklands again and explored some more of that.\u00a0 We were rather shocked by the public toilets there.\u00a0 It is best to describe them as … Continue reading ![\"Milton's](\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Miltons-Eiffel-Tower.jpg\" "\\"Milton's")
![\"Roma](\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Roma-Street-Parklands-Waterfall.jpg\" "\\"Roma")
![\"Milton's](\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Miltons-Eiffel-Tower-from-the-Bus.jpg\" "\\"Milton's")
![\"Mt](\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Mt-Coot-tha-Lookout-View.jpg\" "\\"Mt")