travelling allrite

When a whole city of Lego begins devouring your home and you are visiting Denmark it only makes sense to visit the Lego House. The world's most popular toy originated in Denmark and the headquarters and main factory still resides here. Unfortunately, Legoland is closed for winter, but Lego House remains open. This new attraction is an architectural marvel showcasing the history of Lego and offering building experiences. We rush out of the hotel before breakfast to catch the fast train to Vejle, the closest station to Billund, where Lego is based. There must be two trains departing close together as we board a slower one. Right direction, slightly wrong timing. Fortunately with our Eurail passes it doesn't matter ticket wise and we even get to ride in first class, where we are served bread rolls with jam and have access to free sparkling water, tea and coffee. There is also free wifi and inconveniently located overhead power points that require long cables to be of an...

Google+ provides an alternative way of exploring our recent trip through Japan with their Stories feature: Sydney to Matsuyama Hiroshima - A Memorial Okonomiyaki in Hiroshima Mazda Factory and Museum Tokyo DisneySea Odaiba Flying home from Narita

I really wish that Tokyo Teleport was real with access to Sydney. For a supposed aircraft lover I get awfully anxious and tired of long overnight flights. It's always the same on the final day. Shop until you are overloaded. Catch the train to the airport. Fly off home. After reserving seats on the Narita Express for the late afternoon we caught the Saikyo/Rinkai Line to Oimachi to shop for some items at the Ito Yokado department store (kind of like a Big W). We returned to Shinjuku to eat at Tokatsu Wako, located in the Subnade underground shopping street near our hotel. Then more shopping (H&M, Muji) before hurrying back to the hotel where I collected the luggage and B and Alex at a last meal at Sakura Sushi opposite. The hour long journey on the Narita Express is always a nice way to relax before or after a flight. I'd had a bad night before and was again feeling apprehensive about the upcoming flight home. At Narita Airport we got our two zaisu (floo...

Today I travelled through a Teleport. It took me out to Venus Fort. Then I went over a rainbow And returned to somewhere I know We caught a train, one drove a car But really we didn't go very far. We've been looking to purchase some Japanese household items on this trip and heard about a chain of stores called Nitori . There's one at Odaiba , so we caught the Rinkai Line from Shinjuku to get there. The exit station is the futuristically, and unfortunately inappropriately, named Tokyo Teleport. I would gladly use a teleport to return to Sydney rather than fly past Typhoon Neoguri. There are quite a few shops and activities at Odaiba. We started at Megaweb, which hosts a large Toyota showcase of their technologies and cars. If you have an International Driving Permit or local license, and can speak Japanese, you can test drive one of their cars around a set track. There are also some driving activities for younger kids, though the choices are limited for non-Japan...

I was never a great fan of Disney as a kid, but I'm beginning to understand its attractions. Last year we visited our first Disney theme park; Tokyo Disneyland and thoroughly enjoyed it, despite the long queues for a number of major attractions. "For Alex's sake" yesterday we tried out Disneyland's neighbouring attraction, Tokyo DisneySea, prepurchasing tickets at Shinjuku Takashimaya's Disney ticket counter. To reach the park from Shinjuku involves a 15 minute train ride on the frequent Chuo Line Rapid to Tokyo Station, then a long walk to the Keiyo Line to Maihama. This time we caught the Mickey Mouse windowed Disney Resort Line monorail to the DisneySea park entrance. Alex was delighted to finally use automatic gate tickets at the monorail station (you can also use IC cards) rather than the attendant gated JR Passes we have been relying on. Once through the ticket gates a large globe, appearing to be suspended by water, spins slowly. The gatew...