Mostly Harmless…
I went to Rome to watch the rugby last weekend. There’s only so much one can see in two days, especially working around the rugby, but we got quite a bit of sight-seeing in.
My brother and I at the Trevi Fountain.
Entrance to the Pantheon.
There are 2 Popes per square kilometre in the Vatican City.
I’d like to go back to see the Colosseum and take a proper look around the Vatican. That might have to wait for a while though.
Osaka is only about half an hour from Kyoto by train, so we decided to spend today there and visit Osaka Castle. It was first built in the late 1500’s, and even though it has been rebuilt and restored a number of times since then (The castle itself is actually built of concrete!) , it’s still one of the most impressive buildings I’ve ever seen!
I went for a walk around Kyoto today and visited Nijo Castle and Kinkaku-ji (The Golden Pavilion). I took some pictures.
I’m lucky enough that I’ve never been subjected to the UK rail network for more than a couple of hours, but still, I try to avoid it where possible!
The Japanese rail network is totally different! It’s spotlessly clean (even the Tokyo underground!) and runs to the minute. If the timetable gives a 14:03 departure, the train is leaving the station at 14:03:01.
Today I travelled to Kyoto on the Hikari high-speed train. The interior was set out more like an aircraft cabin than a train car, with everyone given an assigned seat in forward-facing rows. One very cool thing about that: The seats all face forward. What happens at the end of the line? Does the entire train turn around? Do the passengers just have to travel backwards instead? No. A team of cleaners rushes on board between services, and as part of their duty, spins each row of seats through 180-degrees! It’s brilliant!
Today we went to Miraikan (Japan’s National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) and were just in time to see ASIMO come out of his* cupboard and run around for a bit!
ASIMO was only out for about 15 minutes, but he was pretty impressive. He did a bit of running in a straight line and managed to kick a football across the stage to one of the museum staff. He didn’t attempt any stairs though!
*ASIMO is so awesome that I often think of it as a tiny person in a suit. A kind of Turing test I suppose.
During the Second World War, Townsville was an important base for supply ships and troops. In order to defend it from the Japanese fleet, two huge gun emplacements were created on Magnetic Island along with the command and signals buildings needed to support them.
I didn’t have time to see them the last time I was on Magnetic Island, but time isn’t really an issue now, so I walked up there this afternoon and got some great views of both the bay and the interior of the island!
We took a day trip to Milford Sound today. Luckily, the rain stopped for the first time in almost a week!
I walked through Mordor yesterday. The part of it along the ~18km Tongariro Crossing anyway.
It’s supposedly one of the best single-day walks in the world, and taking a fairly leisurely pace, I completed it in a little under 8 hours.
The trail begins with a nice walk though the heather for an hour or so (which I thought was a bit like home) before beginning to climb the “Devil’s Staircase”. It’s a pretty apt name for an hour-long slog up some poorly defined steps cut into the rock. The views are good, but the climb almost killed me! Eventually the stairs ended, and we waved goodbye to the small group mad enough to climb “Mount Doom”. The rest of us were rewarded with a nice flat plain to walk across, before assaulting the Red Crater Ridge, which was our last big climb of the day.
From the ridge, the track led us down to the Emerald Lakes, across the Central Crater and on to the Blue Lake, where we stopped for lunch. From here the track was almost entirely downhill, and after a couple of hours we reached the Ketetahi Hut, which serves as a toilet stop and place to refill water bottles.
The final stage of the walk took us downhill though the heather and on into a small woodland section. In my opinion, this was even worse than the Devil’s Staircase, as the afternoon sun was out and the track twists and winds to the point that it doesn’t seem to end. Indeed, there’s no indication that you’re near the end until you round a bend and find yourself stumbling into the car park!
The hike was the worst most challenging thing I’ve done in New Zealand, and though I’ve no desire to do it again, I’m definitely glad to have done it!
The sands of Fraser Island managed to do what light impacts, alcohol and salt water couldn’t, and killed my old digital camera. Fraser Island also claimed my Boston Red Sox hat, but I’m (mostly) over that now.
With Christmas sales with especially highly-discounted electronics starting up, I thought it would be a good time to buy myself a replacement (Camera, not hat). So after a bit of haggling, and the minor abuse of a staff discount, I’m now the owner of a Sony DSC-T77, an updated, update of my old T-9.
As proof, I give you Meg’s house.
