Day 12 – Gold Coast (Surfers Paradise)

Last night I took this gorgeous picture  of the sun hitting the building across the way.

Then we went to dinner at Italia Lane.  I haven’t written much about our dinners because, honestly, they haven’t been very memorable.  But Italia Lane was perfect!!  We got a table outside – it was a beautiful evening.  The host (manager/owner?) was so welcoming and friendly to everyone who entered.  He called all the little girls  “princess”, which was sweet.  Looking over the menu, I decided I wouldn’t order the Grigliata di pesce con Salmoriglio, mainly because I really didn’t want to eat bugs. 😂

We ordered a 48-hour focaccia for an appetizer.  The best!  So fluffy in the middle with a very thin crisp crust.  I’ve made homemade focaccia before, but it was nothing like this.

Then I got a pasta with pork and Lee got a filet with Chianti jus.  He said it was like butter.

 

For dessert, a chocolate tart with raspberry gelato.  Yummy!!

This morning, Lee rose at dawn and took this picture of the sun coming up.

Then after getting some Starbucks coffee and an almond croissant, and hanging around the room for a while, our driver picked us up to take us to the Gold Coast.  It should have been about an hour drive, but traffic was super heavy, so it took about 90 minutes.  But, all good.  He wasn’t super talkative, but it was a pleasant trip.  It was actually in a Tesla, which had an incredibly large navigation screen between the driver and passenger seats. I spotted this (just above the orange arrow):

Dan Murphy’s Beenleigh.  I wasn’t sure what a “beenleigh” was, but Google told me it’s a town.  And Dan Murphy’s is a liquor store.  Fitting. 😂

We arrived at the hotel, had some lunch, our room was ready before we finished lunch, so Lee changed into his swim trunks and we headed for the beach. Our hotel is pretty cool.  Usually the rooms have plain white robes.  Ours has this:

And these are the pillow on the beds:

However, all the elevators have weirdos in the back like this (but some are girls in a bikini, which Lee likes 😂,) which have freaked me out every time.

Nice beach, but the surf looked rough!  I tried to take some pictures of Lee “swimming”, but it was hard to capture.  He also said he got pretty beat up by the waves.

On the short walk back to the hotel we noticed this monstrosity blocking out the sun on a large swath of the beach.

And here’s a picture from the other side. 

I made reservations for dinner at the restaurant here.  It was rated #4 in Surfer’s Paradise, so we’ll see.  (If I don’t mention it tomorrow, it was meh.  😆

(Posted Feb 8, 5:20 PM)