Mostly Gifu, some Nagoya, a bit of Mizohu-shi

What to do in Gifu if you have already done the castle?  Go to Nagoya!

We met Austin at Gifu station, Kaori and Tatsuki having decided that they would prefer to have a quiet day at home. The train was DELAYED!!! This is unusual in Japan but there were very strong winds and the trains were all running to a restricted speed. And our express train was reduced to a stopping train.

No matter. We got there and embarked on what was effectively a shopping trip. We did the electronic stores. We did the department stores. We had curry for lunch. We went to Noritake Gardens to admire the china and pretty things. We went to the pub for iridescent cocktails. And then we went back to Austin and Kaori's place en route to the pizza place for tea

Austin, Kaori and Tatsuki stayed at the hotel in Gifu overnight on Sunday. I think Tatsuki was very excited by this, by the plethora of iPads and iPhones, by the games of chasey and all the other fun things to do and to play with. Austin reports that he (Tatsuki) didn't finally go to sleep until after midnight. Lindsey, The Builder and I had no such trouble and were happily snoozing by then.

Lindsey and I went for a pleasant walk along the river on Monday morning before we all met for breakfast. Then we all made our way back to Mizuho-shi for a potter about and a spot of lunch. Then The Builder and I made our way, alone together for the first time since we had arrived in Melbourne, for the trains back to Osaka Airport. It seemed quite odd to be by ourselves. We had got used to having travel companions and people to play with!

We got to the (right) airport and stayed overnight in the (right) airport hotel. This time we had a view out over the water. And now we are airside, waiting for our flight back to the final (and original) time zone. Yet another whoosh of time has passed by extremely quickly.

Osaka airport has a huge, huge shopping area. Zillions of shops, squillions of restaurants and cafés. Until you get airside where there is almost nothing!!! So if you are passing through Osaka, eat and shop before you come airside, unless you specifically want duty free. And make sure your electronic devices are charged up. There are no power points airside. Most unusual in a modern airport. There is free wifi, but it is painfully, painfully slow.

There is an online album for Japan but there is no chance of linking to it here.  I'll put a link up when we get home.

Nihon

It was surprisingly easy to get from the airport in Osaka to Gifu, near Nagoya. You walk past the JR station on your way to the airport terminal from the hotel. The friendly station staff speak English and sold us tickets from the airport to Nagoya via the Airport Express to Shin-Osaka and then the Shinkansen to Nagoya. We followed Austin's instructions to get to the train to Gifu, and then - here we were. No drama, no trouble, no worries.

We had burgers and chips in the Mouse Burger, erm, I mean Mos Burger shop at the station and then took a taxi to our hotel, which overlooks the river and the hill with the castle on top

We  got to the hotel at about 2 and Austin, Kaori and Tatsuki joined us shortly after. Lindsey and Tatsuki re-bonded over her iPad. We played chasey in the room with him, and hide and seek, baby style. He seems to think we are all quite good fun. Austin, Lindsey and I went to the Aeon Mall for supplies, while The Builder and Tatsuki stayed in the hotel. Shopping isn't really Tatsuki's thing! Then we all took taxis to the city centre and met Kaori's parents in an izakaya restaurant for a delicious dinner. We had loads of little dishes, like edamame beans and fried chicken pieces and tempura crab and loads of delicious things. It was a good evening!

Nearly a catastrophe

We left Cairns yesterday lunchtime, flying with Jetstar.  Both Lindsey and I get emails from Jetstar offering Friday Frenzy deals. I think Lindsey probably finds these a tiny bit more useful than I normally do. On this occasion it was very useful indeed because you could upgrade to business class for half a Vegemite sandwich and a bottle of beer. So we did. Jetstar is a budget airline so you don't get the seats that turn into beds, but you do get veRy comfortable seats with lots of leg room, lovely food, plenty of wine and attentive staff. I must remember to keep and eye on the Friday Frenzy emails the next time I want to potter about in Jetstar's domain. (It is surprisingly difficult to type Jetstar!!)

Anyway. We got here. Lindsey had organised a three bed room at the airport hotel. Which very conveniently is across the road from the airport, a two minute walk under a covered walkway. Where in most airports you would find the short stay car park. The only hotel actually at the airport, said Lindsey.

Odd, thought I. We are booked I to a different hotel when we come back on Monday. It too says it is a five minute walk from the airport. Later in the evening I double checked my booking. Yup. Definitely says a five minute walk. I checked to see how we got there. Cross the road, walk under the bridge. I looked on Google maps. That said it would take an hour and a half by car :-S. I checked again. A five minute walk. It was all very peculiar. I looked at it all again. I looked out the window. I can see the airport. But I can't see a bridge or a fly over. It turns out that what I fondly thought was the Osaka international airport when I was making the booking is, in fact, a small-ish domestic airport serving relatively local cities, about an hour and a half from the actual international airport by car. So no use to me at all!!!

It was fortunate that I thought to check last night, though. I could cancel that booking with no penalty last night. So I did. And now we are booked  in here on Monday evening. Very much more convenient for our lunchtime flight on Tuesday from *Kansai* international airport Manchester.

Kansai airport from our hotel window

Took me ages to work out why my iphone wouldn't connect to a network when we got here. Both Lindsey's phones connected - eventually. But not mine. Couldn't even see a network to connect to. Then I remembered that I had turned 3G off when I left the UK to conserve battery power. Japan's mobile phone network is entirely 3G.   No 3G, no phone service. I've turned it back on.

Onigiri for breakfast then off to Gifu.

Daintree Rainforest

Neither The Builder nor I had ever been to the Daintree.  We had a free day, so Lindsey booked us all on to a day trip to go exploring.

Darryl, our guide, picked us up from the motel at 7 in the morning and we joined a small and select band of him, we three, Jenna from Canada and James from Ireland and set off adventuring.

We boardwalked in the Mossman gorge.

We strolled along pristine beaches along the Coral Sea.

We had lunch in a rainforest.  Barramundi for me and The Builder, Kangaroo for Lindsey.

We took a boat along the Daintree River to admire crocodiles (and a beautiful Nankeen Night Heron).

We admired the beach at Cape Tribulation (poor Captain Cook didn't have a good time at Cape Tribulation!).

We had ice cream made with exotic fruits, including wattle seed which tasted faintly chocolatey and soursop which tasted faintly lemony.

We made a stop to admire the mouth of the Daintree from on high.

We called briefly into Port Douglas so Jenna could say she had been.

We got back at 6 pm after an excellent day adventuring.

It was a great day and Darryl was a superb guide.

Click here to reach the Far North Queensland album

Kuranda

As far as I can see, the only reasons that Kuranda exists are so that people can go to the arts and crafts markets, so that they can go to the tourist and souvenir shops, and so that people have somewhere to go in the Atherton Tablelands close to Cairns.  It's a nice little place but that is pretty much all there is to do there.

It is possible to get there by car but unless your sole aim is to go for lunch that seems to be quite a boring way of getting there.

A much more interesting way would be to go by steam train. I have not done this but I know people who have. It takes about an hour and a half, I believe.

Or - you can go by Skyrail. Which is what we did. And very magnificent it is too. The cable cars soar high above the rain forest, sometimes even above the clouds, and sometimes very close to the tree tops. There are a couple of places where you can get off and wander around, admiring waterfalls and magnificent views. It takes a little over half and hour in each direction if you don't get off. If you have no fear of heights, for a little extra you can take a glass bottomed gondola. We didn't bother. The view is spectacular just through the windows

You could not say that the kitchenette in our room is particularly well appointed but it is certainly adequately appointed. There isn't an oven but there are hot plates and a microwave and there is a barbecue outside. So we grabbed the makings of a salad on our way home from the Skyrail and we bought some snapper fillets. And despite the rain, we sat outside under the canopy by the barbecue and we "grilled" the fish and we ate the salad and we had rather tasty bread rolls, washed down with some chilled white wine.  Lindsey and I had a swim before dinner, when it wasn't raining. It was all rather pleasant.  

While I was prepping the salad, I heard the sound of a ship's hooter. Then I hear it again. And again. We knew there was a cruise ship in town because several times in the course of the day people had asked me if I was on the ship. We assume because I wear my camera on a lanyard and passengers ashore often do have ship's lanyards on. So we hot footed it to the bay to see if we could see it (abandoning the salad only half made)

Meanwhile, back in the tropics ...

Stella and Tony drove us into Frankston after lunch on Monday and we took the train back into Melbourne, ready for our final Steak Night.  Well, for this trip anyway!  Present on this occasion, in addition to Lindsey, Ian, The Builder and me were Simon, Bethan, Noodle and Christian, who had come to make sure that we were really leaving :-)

Sunset on our final evening in East Melbourne

Then on Tuesday, well before dawn had cracked, we all piled into the car and poor Ian - who had to be up early as well and didn't even have a nice holiday to look forward to - took us to the airport.  And now we are in Cairns, in Far North Queensland.

We arrived at around 8 in the morning, hours and hours and hours before we could check in to Reef Palms (which is a budget motel close to the airport, made up of studio apartments; ours would comfortably sleep 5). Lindsey has hired a car, so we headed north to Palm Cove for a stroll and a small spot of breakfast:

Then we pootled on up to Port Douglas for another stroll before returning to Cairns for lunch.  And then it was *finally* time for us to check in to our room!!  It was a very early start, it must be said (I am not normally up and rushing about at 4 in the morning, and in Queensland it was only 3!) but it did give us a full day to play when we got here.

I don't think that there was a pub night in Melbourne this week.  But there was in Cairns.  A pub night combined with (yet another) steak night.  Last time we were here we ate in a nearby, not very exciting "English" pub.  Leafing through the Visitor Information in the apartment, I discovered that there is another pub even more nearby, and it does really quite nice food.  Lindsey and I had steak.  The Builder had a fish platter so substantial that it defeated him. I would be worried, but he had had three quite large meals in the space of 9 or 10 hours!

Lunchtime view

Let the eating continue

We went down to Mount Martha from Melbourne on Friday. By train!  I have never gone to Frankston on the train before. It takes about an hour, and the trains run roughly every ten minutes, which surprised me a little. They are also quite remarkably cheap. I was expecting to have to top up the Myki (Oyster) card to pay for the tram fare from Reservoir and the train fare to Frankston but in fact there is still plenty of money left on the cards.

Anyway.  We got to Frankston, where Tony had come to pick us up. We got to Mount Martha, where Stella was waiting for us. We had a light lunch - and then in the evening we went to the Dava and didn't have a light dinner. Stella, The Builder and I had plates of fritto misto. Tony had a "senior's" plate of calamari. His allegedly small plate of calamari had almost as much on it as our mixed seafood fry ups!! All I can say is that it is a good job The Builder is partial to calamari. He didn't get any of mine but he got a good bit of Stella and Tony's :-D

On Saturday we headed into Frankston for a little bit of light shopping. And no meals out, but mighty fine meals at home. Pretty much an auxiliary steak night :-). The Builder and I also wandered up the road to visit Pete and Liz who we have known almost for ever and who live in the same complex as
Stella and Tony. A nice quiet day, enlivened by a visit from Simon, Bethan, Noodle and Noodle's friend Molly (a lovely golden retriever) who called in on their way home from the dog-friendly beach nearby. It was quite a hot afternoon and I think the humans and canines alike enjoyed playing in the sea

On Sunday Tony and I went to the local Anglican Church, where Tony plays the flute in the choir. And then we all headed off to Flinders for Sunday lunch in the restaurant at the Flinders Pub. And very swish it was too. Proper silver service. And proper food. Absolutely delicious king prawns for

my starter and a main course that Tabitha would have thought was heaven on a plate. Lamb three ways - a tiny fillet, a tiny piece of shoulder and a small rack, all beautifully cooked and accompanied by heritage carrots and tiny roasted beetroots.  Very yum!

Sunday was enlivened by the news via Facebook that Belinda, Sage and William had been evacuated from their place in the Gippsland countryside to their nearest town for fear of bush fires. Matt had stayed behind to "Watch and Act". Fortunately a change of wind direction meant that their house didn't get burnt down, and Matt and the two dogs were not barbecued. But there have been some quite challenging fires around Victoria this weekend. Not on the Mornington Peninsula, though.

And now it is Monday. The temperature has dropped noticeably - it's a very pleasant mid-20s today. And we are heading back to Melbourne after lunch for our final night in Victoria before heading to
Far North Queensland at some unGodly hour tomorrow morning.

Farley and Farley meet for the first time

Mostly eating

We didn't have a proper lunch on Monday - unless you count a large fried dim sim as a proper lunch. Instead we went shopping with Lindsey in the morning, then we three drive to Melton to rescue Emily's now fully repaired, serviced and kitted out with new brakes and things car. I had the pleasure of driving it back to Clifton Hill. It wasn't too bad driving it, once I got used to the lack of power steering! Then we went shopping again, just in case there was anything left in Melbourne to buy. There was lots of food on Monday evening, though. Steak and potatoes and salad  and stuff

Tuesday saw The Builder and me heading off to Carlton for lunch in Papa Gino's with our friends Glenys and Geoff who were just back from a trip to Vietnam. They came to stay with us a couple of years ago in Tupton. Was good to catch up with them. Then on Tuesday evening, Lindsey, Ian, Simon, Wendy, Christian, Cassie, The Builder and I all met in the Fox for dinner. An excellent prawn pie with a Moreton Bay Bug on top for me.

Outside the museum, on our way into Carlton

Wednesday found The Builder and me heading back to Carlton for another pizza lunch, this time with our friends Peter and Daniel and another friend Jan. Two ministers, a minister's partner and a one time minister's wife - and one poor builder who may have been a bit puzzled by the churchy turn the conversation occasionally took. Then in the evening, Lindsey, Ian, The Builder and I took ourselves to the Prince Patrick for dinner before Lindsey, The Builder  and I headed up to Ballarat for the night

The Exhibition Buildings

More food on Thursday. This time The Builder and I met Pat in Seymour's (another pub) in Ballarat
 for lunch and in the evening Judy and Theo came to Lindsey and Ian's place for dinner. It was a beautiful evening so we had our chicken schnitzels and salad outside. We had our fruit tart and Lindsey's home made ice cream outside as well. We came in only when the mozzies started to bite.

There will be more food today. We're in Mount Martha for the weekend and I think we're going to

another pub for tea this evening.

I lost my iPad on Monday ;-(. We got back to the flat prior to preparing the steak - and it wasn't with me ;-(. We looked everywhere. And there it wasn't. So I tried the FindMyIpad app on my phone. It said my iPad was offline ;-(. This was a worry because if it was at the flat, or at Simons place, where we had started the day, it would have been online ;-(. So we rang Simon's place, where Bethan answered and said that she had found it and out it on the kitchen bench.  When I next encountered my iPad - for some reason it had turned off the FindMyIpad facility. That is really not very helpful! I've turned it back on and have been keeping a very close eye on the iPad's whereabouts ever since!!

The very beautiful rug that my father made

We always seem to spend our time eating when we are in Melbourne. Maybe next time we should find an alternative activity!!

80th Birthday Celebrations #2

You find us in Simon's house this morning. It's quite early, Monday. Simon, Bethan and Jacob are getting ready to go to work and school. The Builder is loitering in Yvette's bed (but panic not -Yvette isn't here; he shared it last night with me and, from time to time, Noodle the Groodle). We are here because Stella and Tony are in the spare room in the flat. And they are in town because yesterday was Stella's actual 80th birthday and they, their children and any spare passing partners all met at GGs for a celebratory lunch.

Click on Stella and Tony to reach the photo album

I topped and tailed the day with nice walks.  Around the city in the cool of the morning with Lindsey and Ian, then around the Merri Creek and the Yarra River with Simon, The Builder and Noodle in the heat of the late afternoon. Noodle enjoyed a swim in the Yarra. But swimming in the Yarra is not a recommended activity for humans (dangers of underwater hazards drowning you and/or snakes biting you) so we cooled down on our return to the house with beer and wine.

Ladies (and Gentlemen) who lunch

I woke up because I was too hot.  Then I woke up because I was too cold.  :-(

I woke up because I needed to go for a wee. Then I woke up because I was thirsty :-s

I woke up because my ankle was aching ;-(

Then, I woke up in a cold sweat because we had all slept in and Lindsey was either about to leave or had left and we we're still in bed and in the absence of Emily's car (which is still in hospital) it was going to be very hard to get to where we were going for lunch :-S

It was only ten to four!!!

It had been so much easier the day before when we were going to our friend Pat's place.  She lives on the outskirts of Ballarat. Lindsey was off for lunch with some friends of hers and dropped us a couple of kilometers down the road late morning and we strolled up the main road in Pat's direction.  No need for rushing about. No need for panic, first thing in the morning.  And Pat plied us with wine and fed us duck pancakes and lemon tart, and we had a leisurely chatter and a bit of a catch up and a lovely afternoon. There will be an opportunity for a further lunch with Pat in August, when she cruises past our place. Lindsey came and picked us up later in the afternoon, so no need for rushing about then either.

And no need for panic yesterday, either.  We were all ready in good time to head down to Melbourne so Lindsey could go to work. There is a very convenient tram stop outside her surgery so we hopped on a tram headed for the main station in town. (Phone call from Lindsey while we were on the tram.  Her receptionist had asked where we were going. On being told, asked why we were going on the tram and train and not in Lindsey's car, which she didn't need in the course of the day.  Because none of us had thought about it is the simple explanation! Did we want to go back and collect the car? No - we were all set up for tramming and training now).

I've never taken the train from Melbourne to Macedon before, and it's a charming trip.  You have to take the stopping train to Bendigo and it chuffs and putters and potters it's way through Sunbury and Gisbourne and all stops between. Cute!

Chris and John have moved into a not-quite-complete "granny flat" in Megan and Mark's paddock. It's not quite complete in that the carpets aren't down and a few bits and pieces need doing.  Oh - and the kitchen isn't in yet.  So we had salad and bread for lunch. And barbecued lamb. Barbecues are a very useful thing when you don't have an oven :- D

There won't be an exciting lunch today. The Builder is planning to finish the fly doors he's been making for the Ballarat kitchen, which are hung but need handles and fasteners and things. Then he wants to fix the shelves in the Ballarat kitchen before they go the way of the East Melbourne shelves. Lindsey intends to acquire chook food and dog food and possibly some plates for the flat. I have no plans :-)

Chris and friends in the temporary kitchen facility of their granny flat

The Builder and John discussing plans for the new place

This is where the new kitchen will be, possibly as soon as the coming week

Lounge room, only needing carpet

It's far and away the mightiest granny flat I have ever seen!

(Sorry, Pat.  No photos of your equally lovely new abode. I forgot to bring my camera when we came to you.  I'll remember it next time.)