The next couple of days were to be a break from the beach as we headed to Brisbane. We had an early start but unfortunately the weather wasn't really on our side and it was a pretty grey and miserable morning. We arrived in Brisbane around lunch time and as it wasn't really a day to be outside exploring we decided to have a look round a shopping centre on the outskirts of the city and oh my goodness what a shopping centre it was. The place was massive and it wasn't until you were inside that the full scale of the centre became apparent, it was just ridiculous it had a bowling alley, cinema, loads of restaurants as well as literally hundreds of shops. With it being the festive season the whole place was reeking of Christmas and so it really helped us get into the Santa zone with all the other Christmas shoppers. If you had been out with any real Christmas shopping to do it would have been a complete nightmare as it was total chaos wherever you looked. We however had no Christmas presents to buy and so were able to have a leisurely stroll around the centre taking in all the shops. I say leisurely stroll however in actual fact it took us about 4 hours to explore every annex of the centre and by the time we were done even without buying anything we were exhausted! One good thing to come out of our explorations was the discovery one of our favourite restaurants, Wagamamas and with the cinema only a short stroll away that was our evening sorted. A delicious dinner followed by the new bond film Quantum of Solace which we had been desperate to see since its release. After the shopping centre we had enough time to go in search of the campsite and get ourselves checked in for 2 nights. The campsite was pretty basic but had a fantastic location and so we were happy to use it as our base to explore the city the next day. The dinner at Wagamamas was delicious and if you have never been to one of their restaurants but like Thai and Asian cuisine then you should definitely go as the food is so yummy! The film in our opinion was pretty average for a Bond film and definitely not one of Broccolis finest creations but it had all the usual Bondisms with the fast cars, hot chic's and more importantly delicious Daniel Craig so I wont complain too much about the film!The next morning and the weather hadn't really improved however its never cold in Queensland so armed with the umbrella we caught a bus into the city centre. Brisbane was going to be a whistle stop tour as we visited and stayed in the centre the last time we were in Australia. This was to be more of a trip down memory lane and see if much had changed since we were last here. As cities go Brisbane is never going to win any awards and the lack of sunshine did nothing to help its grey and uninspiring appearance. We had a look around some of the shops reminiscing about what we bought the last time we were here before heading over the river to the more attractive riverside area. This is where the university is situated and it is around the riverside that has seen some regeneration and as such makes it a much more pleasant area to walk around or just relax at the man made beach complete with salty ocean on the bank of the river! Whilst it was an interesting sight and aptly named "Streets Beach" it wasn't really our cup of tea but it wasn't really the weather for sunbathing anyway! After spending the day in the city centre it was fair to say that not much has changed about Brisbane in the last 3 years and it was time to move on to the beautiful Gold Coast for yet more beaches and maybe some boogie boarding?