A 5:30am start isn’t so bad for a 9:30am flight to Brisbane, especially when we are now used to a 3am start for the 7am Sydney flight, but the 3 hour time difference (Brisbane doesn’t move the clocks forward for summer) does catch up later in the day.
Dave and Marilyn picked us up about 6am and yet the traffic was already quite busy. We parked at the pre-booked short stay car park at the airport and not for the first time, found that bay or lane markings could have been a bit better.
Electronic check in was straightforward and the only queue was for the baggage drop, but that was nothing compared to the days of old with the inevitable long, slow shuffle to the counter.
We went straight through Immigration without hiccups or much of a queue and headed for the “Shaky Isles” café for breakfast, (eggs Benedict for me – on spinach of course, with a generous side of bacon (+$5) as we hadn’t booked a meal on the aircraft. We had booked our seats however and although there was a delay (late arrival from LA), I hadn’t realised it was a 777-300 and our seats were in Premium Economy, but with economy service. That meant the pods and heaps of leg room. No complaints from me.
Arrival in Brisbane was straightforward and although this is my last trip on an old non-chip non-smart passport, through very quickly and we headed for the Thrifty car rental desk. Between us, we had Gold Cards and an AA card and that managed to get us our second driver for no extra charge. It was the AA card that worked… We did get an upgrade though, to a 1,000km electric blue Mitsubishi ASX SUV.
As is usual, Dave and I do a day each driving, so I kicked off with the run to Broadbeach, but our Meriton apartment wasn’t quite ready, so we crossed over to the Pacific Fair shopping mall, which is having a major revamp and extension.
We opted for a very nice Turkish pide in the old foodcourt, then the basic shopping – including pickled onions, cheese and Lurpak butter of course, before heading to the Meriton.
As usual, great front desk staff and our two bedroomed corner apartment was in the north tower, 13th floor. Ocean view out from the lounge and balcony, up the Pacific Coast highway back to Surfers and the Jupiter’s casino from the bedrooms.
We opted for a stroll to suss out the local eateries. What we like about this restaurant strip is that here is a vast choice and most offer a deal of some sort, such as 2 for the price of 1, or 40% off before 6pm or 6:30pm.
Back to the apartment – briefly, before returning to Dave’s preference, Aura – 50% off.
We both ordered a cider and it came promptly – but no glasses! Not unusual in a pub maybe, but a bit odd in a restaurant. We had to wait almost an hour for the food which was almost excellent, spoiled for me by a cold plate and lukewarm food. A nice piece of fillet steak on creamed potatoes, kale (the in thing at the moment it seems) and baby carrots. Quite why they can’t manage to heat the plates for hot food in a restaurant, I can never quite fathom out.
A pleasant stroll around the area and Marilyn was very attracted to the Max Brenner Chocolate shop/emporium/café… No surprises there.
Needless to say, bed-time wasn’t late.
Theme park number 1 tomorrow!
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