Pictures Pictures and more pictures !!!

Hello all,

Yey we finally found some good internet to put pics up.. We are now in Sydney, got here yesterday, so far so good...

Lots of pics below

Melbourne

Lucy at the top of the Eureka Tower
Views from the river cruise
Frog at the Aquarium

Ahhhh in the shop at the aquarium
Rafa Nadal warming up on one of the outside courts at Melbourne Park
Us on the posh river cruise!!!
Lee had kangaroo for tea.. yum yum!!!
Cruising back into Southbank at the end of the dinner cruise
At the tour of the MCG
Us posing with a member of the Neighbours cast, not a clue who she was...
Us holding the Ramsay Street sign

Tour Pics
Lucy at a beach stop on the Great Ocean Road
Posing under the Great Ocean Road sign
Dr Doolittle feeding the birds
A message we wrote in the sand, hello everyone!!!
Larking around on the beach
Lucy having a kip!!!
On the treetop walk.. it was scary!!
Lucy with one of the 12 apostles in the background
Lucy with safety gear on before helicopter ride
Lee in the helicopter, was bloody ace
View from high up in the chopper
Us posing by London Bridge (well half of it), some got knocked down about 20 years ago
Lucy at a waterfall

Larking about for the camera as you do!!!
So we stopped for to make some lunch and Lee decided to go down the slide a few times
Nice tan lines!!!

Lee reading Bill Bryson at the back of the tour bus
Cool road signs in the outback
Chef at work.. Lucy flipping up some burgers for lunch
Us somewhere (sorry can't remember)
On the salt lake, it was massive
Lucy in the salt lake
Comedy pictures at the salt lake

Lucy in the desert
How far to Darwin!!!!
Lucy at the Olgas
Ayers Rock first thing in the morning
Some big red rock we stumbled across
Lucy when we were walking around the base of Ayers Rock

Sunshine at Kings Canyon
Lucy at Kings Canyon which we hiked early in the morning
Garden of Eden at Kings Canyon
At Coober Pedy

Our cave hotel at Coober Pedy, weird and bloody dark at night

Our tour guide Doc messing around!!!

Which way?

No point asking Lee for directions he'd only get lost!!!

Small town.. apparently the Welsh love it here, no idea why!!!

Lucy after she had tied Lee to the train tracks.. she wishes!!!

Jump...

Lucy before she stood on my head!!! more comedy pics at the Salt Lake

Our TV when we were staying at Marla... Rumour is it is even older than Jane!!!

Sunset at Alice Springs with some bubbly.. one of our faviourite pics of the whole tour so far!!!

Us at the Olgas

Welcome to the Northern Territory

Climbing Heart Attack Hill at the Kings Canyon at 6 in the morning

Last night of the tour at Annie's Bar in Alice Springs.. If we look pissed that's because we are!!!

Lucy drinking Lee's beer.. At 12 bucks for a jug it was a no brainer!!!

In The Outback !!

Hello There,

Sunday 5th February

Up early today had brekky at 7am toast and coffee then on bus headed to Warren Gorge looking for rock wallabies saw one lol then back on bus and headed to Yourambulla Caves to view Aboriginal Rock Paintings alittle hike over rocks to get there was ok then yes you guessed it back on the bus and headed too Flinders Range National Park for lunch had Burgers cooked on the BBQ havent had thoses for days NOT !!!! on the first day of this tour from Adelaide the guide put us into teams 1,2,3 and 4 and every meal time a group will do something like cook or wash up it was group 2 turn to cook that was me and jane was in my group too i was in charge of cooking the burgers and onions on the BBQ yes i know you are thinking OMG do you know she cant cook and the answer to that is OH YES I CAN as lee will tell you the burgers were lovely after lunch we went on a hike in Wilpena Pound to see some great views over the National Park it was hard work it was 4km and not flat rocky but worth it great look out great views. On the way to Wilpena Pound we saw some Goats in the road and two of them where having a flight is was funny to watch we have a good video of it which we are gonna get up very soon internet in the outback isnt good well to be honest there isnt any !! lol will do a big photos blog from Sydney
in a week.

After the hike back on the bus and headed back to Quorn where we are staying had dinner at 7pm it was horrible not sure what the meat was but it was supposed to be beef stew with veg not good !!!

We have a lay in in the morning not leaving until 8.30 WOW !!!!! off to Coober Pedy and we are staying under ground looking forward to that and there is a bar under ground too at our hotel there is an under ground bar with pool table and duke box cant wait !!

Monday 6th February

A lay in this morning... yey!!!!! the alarm didn't go off until 6.45am and we snoozed it a couple of times.. after texting dad (Lee) found out that Man U had drawn 3-3 with Chelski which after being 3 zip down was a good result.. we walked our bags down to where the rest of the group were staying, had some brekky and made our lunch for the day (sandwiches)..

One of the first stops we had was at a place called Woomera which was a small Army town, we just stopped for a chill out and after 20 mins we were back on the bus... around lunchtime we stopped at a salt lake which was massive and we got some really cool photos which we will get up at some point on the blog...

We were then on the bus for a bit more and then we stopped in a small town called Glendambo .. poplulation of 30... on the drive into Coober Pedy we had a couple of photo stops and then we got here about 6pm... it is the opal capital of the world here and we are staying in a place called the Desert Cave hotel.. it's the world's only underground hotel.. it is definately the strangest place we have even stayed in...

we had dinner tonight at a local pizza restaurant which was nice and tonight we are off to the underground bar!!!! should be fun!!!!!

Tuesday 7th February

We got up at 7.15am tour guide collected us at 8am to take us to the underground hostel for brekky, after brekky we went on a tour of a Opal mineing grave which was good showed us a film of how it was founded and how over the years they have been digging it up then they tryed to get you to spend hundreds of dollars on opal jewllery and saying you will only get the geniune stuff from us everywhere else is cheaper but fake !!!! yeah yeah lol

We had free time after the tour to have alook around town didnt take long lol we went to another opal shop called Opalios had lots of nice stuff but just to expensive so i brought a peddle pet instead which is a gem stone mounted on a metal plate for legs and has eyes stuck on very cool and only cost $5 lol Lee was happy lol

after shopping we headed to a Kangaroo Orphanage saw the owners feeding them we saw Kangroos that were around 18 months old 5 of them then we saw them feed 3 smaller ones that were 6 months old and then we saw a tiny one that was only 4 months old so tiny didnt have any fur yet all these Kangroos had been taken to the Ophanage due to there mothers being killed either by cars or trucks on the roads and cos the small ones are in the porch and manage to stay unhurt people stop and bring them to the ophanage and the others are there because there mothers have been killed by hunters (Aboridgal people) and they let there children play with the babies until they look like they are one there last legs and then take them to the ophanage very sad but the people there are taking very good care of them we donated some money top help them. after that we went to meet the group for lunch we had Quiche, Salad and chips was very nice, then back on the bus to head to Marla on the way we went down a dirt track to get ack on the highway and a rock flipped up and cracked the whole on the back window behind me and lee not good had to stop and do a temp repair luckliy we are swapping buses tomorrow...

we arrive here at around 6.30pm had dinner at 7.30pm some sitr fry crap !!! and fruit cake for dessert was nice !!! and while the others are sorting out there tents we headed back to our ensuite room with tv which is about 100 years old and kettle, tea coffee and biscuits mmmmm we upgraded when we booked our tour so we have stayed in the better accomdation but that all changes tomorrow we have 2 nights of camping !!! wow cant wait NOT !!!!!

Wednesday 8th February

So we had a mammoth lay in today compared to what was coming.. we got up at 5.45am yeehah!!! We walked across to the campsite via torchlight and had breakfast with the group and then we were away by 6.30am..

We then had quite a lot of driving to get through to get us towards Uluru (about 600km)... On route about mid morning we crossed over the state border from South Australia into the Northern Territory (NT from now on).. and we went back in time an hour as the NT
has no daylight saving like the rest of Oz so we were now 9.5 hours ahead of the UK.. NT is the only one of the 7 areas that make up Oz that isn't a state and about 130,000 people live there and you can fit GErmany into it 3 times.. jeez this country is big..

We finally got to our campiste about 12.30pm and we had some lunch.. there had been a good rotation system in place on this part of the trip in that we have all been out into groups and rotate cooking and cleaning up which is good as it means that everyone has to help out Lee in in group 1 and Lucy and Jane in group 2. For lunch we had chicken burgers and salad.. some of the food is getting very samey to be honest but you need to eat what they provide..

After lunch we went to "Kaja Tjuta National Park" to look at the Olgas which is another major rock formation near Uluru (Ayers Rock).. There we did a 2 hour walk / hike with our guide Doc.. He is a top bloke and as mad as a box of frogs.. The walk was hilly in places but we stopped every 30 mins or so and he would tell us stuff about the area..

After that we went to Uluru to watch a sunset.. they laid on some bubbly which was a nice touch and we watched sunset and got some cool pictures..

Then we headed to camp (our stays in motels were over!!!)... It was actually a lot better than we thought the tents were permanent so we didn't have to pitch our own which would have been fun in the dark.. lol.... all setlled in we grabbed a shower and had some tea.. kangaroo steaks, cheesy potato bake and coleslaw.. it was actually quite nice washed down with a bottle of wine.. the water here is crap you understand!!! We finally got to bed about 10pm.. Lee took a couple of sleeping pills which did the job and apart from it getting very windy in the night when it felt that something was on top of the fecking tent.. we slept Okish...

Thursday 9th February

We were up at 4.30am what the feck!!!! Lee woke up feeling very groggy (courtesy of the sleeping pills)... We were up so early as we were going to go for sunrise at Uluru We left camp at 5.30am and after a photo stop on the way we were at sunrise wathcing point by 6am... the sun rose about 6.30am and then we were back on the road for 6.50am to drive to the rock!!!

We had a guided Mala Walk with Doc from 7-8am and we learnt some stuff about Uluru and Aboriginal Caulture. The main thing we learnt that was it was handed over to the Aboriginal people in 1985 and then leased it back to the Government on a 99 year lease so people could visit. This was under a condition that the climb to the wall remained open for the public.. ABoriginals didn't like this so they said fine in that case we don't want your geoligists studying the area and they haven't since then!!!!

After that we then walked the whole base of Uluru 10km (6.2 miles) in just under 2 hours.. frig our legs hurt.. very interesting to be so close to something you've seen as an image thousands of times... Only shite bit was the flies, there are 3 things about the flies here;

1) They are stupid
2) They try and crawl everywhere, mouth, ear, nose etc
3) They are fecking annoying

Then we went back to camp had some lunch of steak sandwiches and then headed off for the Kings Canyon.... a 3 hour drive during which Lee slept most of it..

We have stopped off at a campsite / resort for a couple of hours so I have grabbed a shower and caught up with pics and the blog.. We are off to proper camp about 6pm tonight.. apparently it is rustic!!! Lee is on cooking duty tonight and we have another 4.30am start tomorrow morning.. Christ roll on Alice Springs..

Apparently this camping lark brings you closer to nature.. well feck nature I'll have a comfortable bed thanks very much...

Friday 10th February

So last night we got to our camp about 6pm and checked in!! Well we picked our tent, same as last night though this time the camp was a bit rustic and more in the bush... We set our stuff down and then got to cooking tea... Lee was on duty, satay chicken, veg and mash it was lovely defo one of the best meals so far washed down with a bottle of wine (again dodgy water supplies here!!!)..

After tea we were in bed by 8.30pm.. sad I know but we had another early alarm call...

At 4.15am, yes that's correct 4.15AM the alarm went off and we got up and dressed by torch light difficult in a small space sharing two torches between 3 people, we got some brekky down us and then we were on our way... This morning we were hiking to Kings Canyon which include the impressive Amphitheatre, Lost City (can't be that lost even Lee found it), Garden of Eden
(apparently Adam wasn't home today).. Esssentially the last parts are all travel agencies bollocks!!!...

Nonetheless we set off on a 7km walk starting with heart attack hill (Lee renamed it heartburn hill!!!).. It was absolutely stunning, we got some fantastic pictures... and 3 hours later we were finished.. we had plenty of stops along the way where Doc told us about the area...

We were finished by 10am and now we are having an early lunch before setting off for the 500km (350 miles or so in old money) to Alice Springs (with a 6 dollar camel ride on route)..
Our tour finishes today, we've seen some incredibl stuff along the way and have some memories (and pictures) to last a life time.. Still looking forward to a normal bed and getting to Sydney..

About an hour from Alice Springs we stopped off at a farm to have Camel Rides Lee and Jane went on i didnt didnt fancy it !! the pictures tell you every thing you need to know !!! was very funny to watch !!!

Tonight group meal as its the last night!!!

Saturday 11th February

Last Night we had a meal with the group and tour gudie in a bar called Annie's Bar $5 meals and jugs of beer for $12 was good we got very drunk and both had hang overs this morning but it as a fab night...

Didit get up till 10am today WOW no more 4.30am starts lol went for a walk into town of Alice Springs small but nice little town and this afternoon just chillin doing the washing catching up on the internet today we fly to Sydney really looking forward to going back there !!!!

We have lots and lots of pic to put up going back to Melbourne will do a picture only blog from sydney !!

Lots of Love

Lucy & Lee xx

Into The Bush!!!

Hello There,

Wednesday 1st February

We left Port Campbell early the next had brekky at 7am and left by 7.30 for a drive to Grampians National Park on the way we stopped at the 12 Apostles Lee took the optional Helicopter ride over the 12 apostles we have good photos of that will try and put some up asap he said it was amazing experience quite bumpy but you had amazing views of the Apostles from there we travelled along more of the Great Ocean Road stopping at more places for photos such as Loch Ard Gorge where we saw a brown snake one of the dangerous ones you ca find in Oz.

luckily it was a small one prob a baby one and it wasnt bothered about me and Lee we did get a photo!! and The London Bridge formation my opinion is it didnt look nothing like London
Bridge, from there we then travelled through country to Victoria on the way we had a quick stop at subway that was our lunch for today not bad especially as it was FREE the one good thing about this tour is the food included Breakfast Lunch and dinner!!! once we had arrived at
Grampians National Park we had two options available this afternoon a 2.5 ks up a mountain or the other option was 1km walk to a waterfall supposedly FLAT (my arse!!!!!) it was not flat and there were alot of rocks to climb over and at the end there was no waterfall more like a leaking tap!! but we did get to sit in the sun for alittle while and see a Porcupine on the way back which was cool.

we then headed to our motel in Halls Gap a place where the Grampians set Grampians is the National Park for the night dump bags and headed back to the hostel where the rest of the group were staying for dinner we had spag bol an it wasnt the best but it was hot and free !!!! after dinner we went back to the Motel opened a bottle of wine and sat out looking out to
all the Kangaroos they were so close to us it was unbelieveable and two of them starting bitch fighting very cool!!!

Thursday 2nd February

Leaving the Halls Gap breakfast at 7am and leaving at 7.30 to drive to Adelaide on the way we stop at MacKenzie Falls just a 20 min drive from Halls Gap the walk to the falls was hard work well going down was easy but coming back up was not so easy alot of steps it was a good work out for that time in the morning the falls were amazing !! after the falls we were back one
the road crossed over the broader from Victoria into South Australia we stop to look at White Western Grey Kangaroos basically Kangaroos that are white !!! we stopped for lunch about 2.5 hours from Adelaide.

it was a mini park area with swings and Slides very cool we were having you guess a BBQ burgers and salad mmmmm after lunch packed up and ended for Adelaide this is where the fun
starts well to be honest we have had problems with this tour since the beginning going back to when we first looked to booking a tour back home lee found one with a company
called Top Deck doing the same route as we are now he emailed them as there website stated an age limit which i wont mention but it did and Jane was over that age
they emailed lee back to stay no sorry the age is the age and they couldn't book her on no problem lee then found another company called Adventure Tours they had no age limit
and we booked on both tour companies doing the same tour route turning up at our pick up point in Melbourne Top Deck turned up the people wont let us book they have now joined in some way but they are in the transfer period of brill we thought at the time it was funny but along the way stopping at different places because we had paid to upgrade from hostel to
motel we kept asking the tour guide where are we staying then as she was only giving the run down of the hostel where everyone else was staying, going back to Adelaide we arrive after a long day of travelling.

we arrive there around 6.30pm they dropped us off at the YHA hostel in town telling us we were staying there as well even though we had booked upgrade we thought oh well as long as we have a private room its ok the guide dropped us all outside unloaded our bags a pissed off after waiting for about 15 mins the the Q for checking the guy told lee he had no booking and we would have to pay to stay there lee lost it a little and Jane went outside for a fag to calm down and i sat there counting to 10 i said to lee lets call the motel we had listed in our notes and see if they have a booking for us he asked the reception guy to find the telephone number for us and lee called and surprise surprise they had a booking it was about a 15 min walk away from where we were which wasn't to bad we checked dumped our bags and found the nearest bottle shop we needed a drink oh there was one next to our motel !!!

Friday 3rd February

Today we had a day tour first we went to Haighs Chocolate Factory it was ok they chowed you what they do but i wasn't interest in how its made just how nice it tasted and we got to taste a little not much but enough to go mmmmmmmmmm and a free coffee after we headed to Mount Lofty not sure what that was about but i did mange to buy a nice pair of earrings in the gift shop there so i didn't really see the view after there we went to Hahndorf i had some nice mini donuts they were nice apart from that it was just alittle town nothing special after lunch we then went on a WINE TASTING TOUR yey !!!!

we went to the Barossa Valley we went tot three different wineries cant tell you the names they weren't well known ones but the wines were good well the first one was shit they tried to go to much into the making of wine and all we wanted was to taste it and the little amount they gave us i count taste it but the other two were great we had a menu and could pick what we wanted to taste they kept puring we kept asking !! after three wineries we headed back to town early night as a early start the next day being picked up to start the next 7 days of our tour to Alice Springs.

Saturday 4th February

WE were advised that our pick up would be at 6.15 am outside our motel but before leaving the Hostel on the friday i swapped mobile number with a girl travelling with in case they didnt pick us up and yes you guess it they didnt she texted me at 6.25 saying on our way the guide said i had you down for staying at the YHA hostel and we told him the story about dropping us there and not being booked there etc Lee told him he had phoned the office and they confirmed the pick up time and place the guide asked who did you call lee said Adventure tours and the guide said oh you should have phoned Top deck thats why this happen by that point i had lost it i said to him in a stern voice but we dont have any details for Top Deck we booked with Adventure because top deck wouldnt take us !!! OMG starting to lose my sense of humour with this company big time!!!!....

So we drove for about 90 mins and then stopped off for brekky (coffee and toast). We were advised that we should buy some supplies as we wouldn't see a supermarket for a while, so we did the decent thing and bought a case of wine!!! We had another couple of stops and we got
to the town we are staying at for 2 nights called Quorn.. In the afternoon we had the choice of an 8ks hike or chilling out, so we chillled out lol.. It's a pretty small town we are staying in (population 1300).. Tonight we had a bbq for tea. We had Camel Sausages, Buffalo Burgers and Kangaroo steaks (with salad) it was lovely. Afterwards we had a couple of drinks at the local pub attached to our hotel and then called it a night

Goodbye Melbourne - Hello Great Ocean Road

Hello There,

You may have noticed our blog has been down the last couple of days, bit of a technical problem!!! but we are now back up and running.. so this is what we have been upto since our last post..

Friday January 27

A lie in, we didn't get up until 11am!!!! spent some time this morning in internet cafe sorting out the blog.. We decided to but See Melbourne cards which enables us too do do 5 attractions from a number of choices.. this afternoon we went up the Eureka Skydeck which is the tallest observation point in the Southern Hemisphere.. Some of the pictures we got were amazing!!!
In the evening we watched the Andy Murray v Novak Djokovic in the Aussie Open semi final in the room over a few bottles of wine. Unfortunately Murray lost but he put up a good fight..

Saturday January 28

An early start (for us!!) and we were out by 9 for brekkie at Gloria Jean's (Aussie Coffee shop chain).. Lee had bannana bread which he loves.. then we went to the Melbourne Aquarium for a look at some sharks!!!

We saw lots of good stuff including Box Jellyfish and Penguins.. afterwards we booked ourselves in for a Neighbours tour on Monday morning..

Then we caught the tram to Melbourne Park to use up the last day of ur ground passes.. We started off watching the wheelchair tennis but then found out we could get into the Rod Laver arena to watch the juniors finals so we did. on route we stopped off at the Margaret Court Arena where a shirtless Rafa Nadal was praticing.. Lucy and Jane were a little excited.. Personally I
(Lee) don't see why Lucy was so excited as she gets to see my six pack (alright one pack!!!) every day.. lol!!!

We watched the girls juniors final which was great and a set of the mens and them came back to the hotel.. In the evening we had booked to go on a Yarra River Dinner cruise.. Basically it was a 3 hour cruise up the river with a six course meal and an open bar... it was bloody brilliant, we had a great time and the food was great.. Lee even had kangaroo... we got back to the hotel about 11pm

Sunday January 29

Very early start for us (7am) as we were booked on an 8am city tour.. the tour took 4 hours and we went around the city including stop offs at Fitzroy and the Royal Botanic Gardens.. When the tour finished we then went for a tour of the Melbourne Cricket Ground.. the stadium is bloody impressive and holds 100,000 people.. our tour guide was 82 and a member of the MCG and was very knowledgable..

In the evening we just had a take away Nando's and watched the men's final with just the 1 bottle of wine between us (yes I know that's hard to beleive but it's true!!!)

Monday January 30

Ahh our last day in Melbourne and another early start.. 7am as we were going to Ramsay Street on the Neighbours tour yey!!! We got down to Flinders for an 8.30am start.. the weather was crap to begin with, raining!!!!

We had a cracking guide and he made us laugh loads on the way there with stories about the show.. First we stopped at the studio to meet an actress from the show and then headed to the street for some pictures with the Ramsay Street Sign... Even though we had been there before it was still great fun...

In the afternoon we (Lee and Jane) did a tour called Melbourne Highlights and did a city loop and then went to the Mount Dandenong ranges... It was very good and at one of the lookouts we got a good view off Melbourne.. In the evening we just chilled out in the room with some food as we had an early start the next morning..

Tuesday January 31

Alarm call for 4.50am crikey!! as we had to be up and out of the hotel by 5.30am.. We walkd with our luggage about 25 mins down to Melbourne Arts Centre where we were getting picked up to start our tour at 6am...

We finally got out of the city about 8am and headed towards the Great Ocean Road.. There are 22 in the group and there is a good mix.. Today we have been to Bells Beach, Torquay, Ottway Flywalk and the 12 apostles lookout..

Tonight we are staying in a small town called Port Campbell which has a population of about 340.. We had a bbq for tea (we get most food provided on this tour) which was nice. We are staying in a different place from the main group who are staying in dorms as we are paying a bit more to have our own rooms..

Tomorrow we have a full day planned heading further up the Great Ocean Road towards the Apostles and Lee is planning to go on a helicopter ride over them..

We even get a lie in tomorrow 6am... lol

Hope everyone is well

Lots of Love
Lee and Lucy
xxx

PS - Some pics to follows..

Melbourne and Tokyo

Hello There,

Sorry it is our first blog since we left but here it is, this is what we have been upto the last few days. We are now in Australia, got here Tuesday 24th and it is hot hot hot...

Wednesday January 18

We left Norwich today for the trip down to Heathrow Terminal 5.. We went via Victoria Coach Station and all was smooth. Tried to get a black cab from Terminal 5 to the Travelodge (4 miles down the road). They wanted a minimum fee of £35 so we told them to whistle and phoned a number we found on the internet which cost £14 alittle bit of a difference. We were checked into the hotel by 6ish and we just ate there in the evening with a few drinks..

Thursday January 19

Today we were flying from Terminal 5 to Tokyo.. Up and out of the Travelodge by 9am as we had to check in 3 hours before the flight left.. T5 is nothing special and wasn't as busy as we thought.. We boarded the flight and took off on time.. as the flight wasn't full we had a chance to spread out.. We also had our own screens and 100+ movies to choose from.. What with the free alcohol at the touch of a button it was happy days all round so the 12 hours flight wasn't too bad!!!

Friday January 20

We landed at local Tokyo time of 9.30am (we were 9 hours ahead of the UK).. We cleared customs, got our bags and then had to get a train to where we were staying.. First thing we noticed is how fecking cold it was.. way colder than when we left the UK (even had a bit of snow).. Getting the train actually was pretty straightforward. We got the Skyliner express and in 36 mins we were at Nippori where we then chagned for SHin Okubo..

Our hotel the Tokyo Plaza was 100m from the train station and even though we got there at 11.30am they let us check straight in which was great.. The hotel as functional and the room especially the bathroom but then we were in Tokyo... As we were so tired we just crashed out for a few hours (4!!!)..

In the evening we just went for a walk around the area where we were staying... it was bloody cold so we just settled for a mcdonalds for tea and a bottle of wine from the local corner shop (for medicinal purposes only).. we were pretty tired so we just crashed..

Saturday January 21

We decided to have a day out on the trains to have a look around.. There isn't really a main central part of Tokyo as it is more just a collection of neighbourhoods together.. After a bit of confusion we finally got the right train ticket which was an all day ticket (well done Lucy!!!)..

First of all we went to Tokyo station.. We had every intention of going to have a look at the Imperial Palace but basically we got lost so we settled for lunch at a little restaurant in the station.. oh yes when we say lost we mean we couldn't find our way out of the bloody train station well the right exit anyway, and the food in the Restaurant well prob best we dont talk about that either not good !!!

After lunch we went to Zoijoi Temple and the Tokyo lookout tower.. Because the weather wasn't great we didn't get such a good view from the Tower which was a shame.. We also went and had a look around Shibuya and Shinjuku where we found a Brit bar and stayed for a couple (well it would be rude not too really wouldn't it!!!)..

In the evening we just got some supplies from the shop and chilled out in the room..

Sunday January 22

Early rise for us today.. we had breakfast at the hotel cafe.. Salad for starters and then toast with egg, bacon and sausage and a piece of bannana (yep it's true!!!) well you need something to dip your egg in don't you which is exactly what Lee did (yep it's true!!)..

Jane and Lucy were going to the "KNITTING I MEAN QUILTING" festival today at the Tokyo Dome which meant that I (Lee) was left all on my own (whats the worse that could happen!!)... I went with them to the Dome and then set off doing my own thing.. I had a look around the area near the Dome, there wasn't much there so I jumped on a train to Shinjuku..

I went to the "Tokyo Metropolitan Government" offices where they had a free observatory point to get some good views of Tokyo.. As it was a much better weather day than Saturday I even got to see Mount Fuji in the distance.. I then went to Ikebukuro for some lunch and then wandered into a sleazy area completely by mistake (honest lol!!) Let's just say I was getting accosted by Japanese men on the street asking me to go into their massage parlour.. I got out of there quickly and jumped on a train to Ueno to go to the Tokyo National Museum..

It was actually very interesting, there was so much to see however that I just browsed through most of it in a couple of hours but you could easily spend the whole day there is you wanted too.

I headed back to the hotel to grab a bit of sleep.. In the evening we were all meeting up with Jane's friend Catty who is now living in Japan and Jane hadn't seen her for nearly 3 years..

We went to a local restaurant down the road and had cheap food and expensive beer (it's Tokyo!!)... afterwards we went back the hotel bar to try some Saki (Japanese speciality).. it was very nice and reminded Lee of Whisky!!! We had a bit of fun and games settling the bill, they tried to charge a table charge of 500 yen per person.. we explained that we were staying at the
hotel and after a bit of twoing and throwing they waived it...

Monday January 23

Our last day in Tokyo before we headed to Aus.. We slept in as late as we could bearing in mind we needed to get out of the hotel by 10am.. we went for breakfast at a local coffee shop and headed back to the observatory so Lucy and Jane could see it..

Afterwards we planned to go back to Ueno so Jane could go back to the museum and me and Lucy to the zoo.. Unfortunately it was all shut which was shite!!! Instead we had a bit of lunch got our bags and decided we would go to the airport early via the slow train. took twice as long but was a third of the price (everything in Tokyo was expensive).. We got to Narita 4pm, found out we couldn't check in until 5pm so went and grabbed a beer..

We though we were going to be able to get into one of the airport lounges as Jane had a card so we checked in and headed to what we though was the right place.. turns out it was the lounge prior to going through security we could get into.. rubbish who puts and airport lounge before security.. we settled for over priced beer and crap food instead..

We boarded our plane (flying with Jetstar).. We took off a little late and it was incredibly bumpy which is an understatement but other than that the flight wasn't too bad... All in all Tokyo wasn't really how we expected it to be but glad we went there for the experience..

Tuesday January 24

We landed at Cairns at 5am this morning after a 7 hour flight from Tokyo.. the temprature when we landed was 21 degrees (crikey).. We had to wait 4 hours before we could get on the flight to Melbourne.. the flight was delayed which wasn't good but we finally took off and landed in Melbourne about 2pm..

We got our bags and got the Skybus to the city and then transferred to our hotel.. We are staying at the Formula 1 Melbourne because we got a good deal.. We are staying on Elizabeth Street in the heart of all the action and so far the hotel is better than what we expected given we only paid £65 a night for it which is a steal in the centre of Melbourne..

We dumped our stuff and headed out and about to explore.. We got some sunnies and picked up tickets for Australian Open.. We are off there tomorrow.. we have tickets for the outside court during the day and then a quarter finals night session at the Rod Laver arena...

So far it's great to be back in Melbourne.. the sun was shining when we got here.. 35 degrees.. Lovely Jubbly!!!!

Wednesday January 25

We had an amazing day today at the Tennis with the ground passes we have they let us go to any of the outside courts just not the main arena we saw some fantastic tennis, the dya started alittle cold and cloudy but after a couple of hours at the tennis the sun came out and it was hot hot hot, we stayed there for the rest of the day because we had tickets for the quarter finals
which turned out to be the mens which was Ferrer against Djokovic that was a fantastic match to watch we left after that which was around 10.45pm we were really hungry so grabbed a subway on the way back to the hotel.

Thursday January 26

Back to Melbourne Park for more Tennis, saw Pat Cash & Goran Ivanesovic and we watched some of the Ladies wheelchair doubles how they more around the court and hit the ball was very interesting to watch. Mens semifinal tonight Nadal against Federer didnt get tickets for this too expenisve and sold out so we went to have dinner in one of the many food courts in melbourne stopped by the local wine store buy one get one free BONUS and watched the match in the hotel room well watching its on now as im typing...

Melbourne Pics

Us in our new hats!!!

Pat Cash and Goran Ivanosevic in legends doubles

Flyover for Australia Day

Melbourne at night

The night session at Rod Laver Novak Djokovic v David Ferrer

Rafa Nadal on a warm up court

Behrami and Pioline in legends doubles

Entry to Melbourne Park

Tokyo Pics

At the train station

Glass lookout on Tokyo Tower

Lee at Tokyo Tower

In the Ziojio Temple

Dinner mmmm!!!

Taking a break in the British Pub - purely for medicinal purposes!!!!

Ceilings aren't that tall in Tokyo

Jane and Lucy first day in Tokyo, it was a bit cold!!!!