mybigadventures.com

Well perhaps not everybody loves Lego. There's bound to be a few people that have stood bare feet on those little plastic bricks and those parents that curse at just how expensive it is, but c'mmon people - Lego!!! So I am definitely what I think they now term as an AFOL; an Adult Fan Of Lego. Dani and I have quite a collection and have actually built a few big models this summer that we bought a while ago including the Lego Creator Ferris Wheel (10247) and the Ghostbusters Firehouse Headquarters (75827). They are awesome, the level of detail is amazing espescially in the firehouse, they've really put a lot of thought into making it as realistic as possible.

Just before we broke up for the summer, I had an envelope through the post from mum. She had collected lots of tokens out of the sun news paper and got two free adult tickets for Legoland for this bank holiday Monday - amazing! So we bought an extra ticket for a bit cheaper though NASWUT and the three of us went.

The weather was fantastic and so was Legoland. It was pretty busy, but I guess this was to be expected with the combination of nice weather and a bank holiday. We really liked Miniland with the lego models of key sights around the world and the new Lego Starwars exhibit with the massive Death Star made of about half a million bricks. All in all a great bank holiday! Enjoy the photos.   

Mum is visiting for the bank holiday weekend, so we decided to make use of the National Trust cards today and headed out to High Wycombe to visit Hughenden Manor. It was home to Benjamin Disraeli, a close friend of Queen Victoria, and the Earl of Beconsfield. He served as both Prime Minster and as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Despite the heavy rain on the way there, we managed to mostly dodge the rain and had a fantastic time.

The house has rooms set up from the time Benjamin Disreali lived there and some rooms set up to show the role of the manor during wartime, when it's codename was Operation Hillside. It's definitely worth a visit and I suspect I may return with Dani another time. There are a few photos from the day linked below.

We've been trying to make the most of the rest of the school holidays before September rolls around so have made a couple more trips out. We visited Buckingham Palace in the first week of September last year, and if you sign the back and keep the tickets, you can revisit as many times as you like within the year. It suggests on the website to book in advance but we thought we'd wing it, and, in a worse case scenario, get tickets for another day. Dani had found some city walks on the TFL website (tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/top-walking-routes) which looked good so either way we had a plan. As it happened, when we got to the palace we were given tickets for about an hour later, so we decided to wait. 

This time, there was an exhibition celebrating the Queen at 90, so several of the state rooms were set out differently to last year. There were 3 rooms showcasing some of the Queen's many outfits including christening, wedding and coronation dresses, in addition to outfits from several foreign tours. For each outfit, with matching hat, there was a short description of where it had been worn and who had designed it. It was very interesting. 

It was a nice day, although by the late afternoon it was a little cloudy. There's a few photos, but only from the outside as no photography is allowed inside the palace. Not that it stopped some people...grumble grumble... Enjoy!

So it's still the summer and we've been out making the most of it. On Tuesday this week we went on a cruise to Kew. We had a voucher for Christmas for buyagift.com so used it towards the cruise trip and entry to Kew. You can just head down to Westminster pier and pay for the ferry on the day and get your ticket for Kew for the same price but the buyagift combo is great if you don't know about it. We really enjoyed the cruise; it takes a little over an hour and for the first half you get a commentary explaining all the local sights. When you first set off, it goes past the Houses of Parliment offering one of the best views of the structure as you pass under the Westminster Bridge.

Kew was fantastic as ever, I think it's our third visit now. This time we were able to look at, and go in the recently added Hive installation. Its a giant metal structure that "encapsulates the story of the honey bee and the important role of pollination, through an immersive sound and visual experience" (www.kew.org/visit-kew-gardens/explore/attractions/hive). The hive is linked to an actual bee hive and the lights and sounds inside respond to activity from the real bee's. Certainly worth a look if you're visiting.

It was a lovely sumer's day and stayed really warm thoughout our visit. We stayed until closing at 6.30 before heading for dinner at the nearby Ask (we had vouchers). After a very filling meal we opted for a Uber back as it was only going to take 30 minutes over the 1 hour 30 minutes by train. All in all a great day out! Enjoy the photos    

This is just a quick one to wish Dani a very Happy Birthday. Hope you had a great day at the zoo and enjoyed the cake! 

We're now on the last day of our holiday and off off out shortly to spend the day in Hiroshima. We're only here three nights as we had difficulty finding a hotel. We've since found out it was the 71st anniversary of the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima and as such there was a big memorial with paper lanterns sent down the river.

We managed to get an earlier train here on Sunday than the one we had booked so arrived at about 12. The hotel was easy to find as it's right next to the train station. We weren't able to check in until 3, do left our luggage at the hotel and headed for the atomic bomb dome and memorial park. It was another hot day so we relented and caught a tram across. They seem to operate a tram system here rather than subway, a bit like San Francisco, you just hop on and pay a flat rate of 160 yen so pretty straightforward. We managed to see the dome and went in the memorial museum which contains stories, images and artifacts from the bomb. It's very moving  and clearly explains the human cost of atomic weapons. 

On our first full day here we visited Miyajama an island just around the coastline. We got a JR train using our passes and then it was a short ferry ride across to the island which could also use our passes on. The island is inhabited by wild deer that wander around quite unphased by tourists and are happy to be stroked and fed. We visited the Itsukushima shrine which appears to float on the water when the tide is in and also saw the large Tori gate which stands out to sea a little. We had a good wander around and also tried to go up the ropewalk cable car but we're unfortunately suspended due to an approaching storm. 

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Yesterday we decided to take a trip out to Rabbit Island which was used as a factory for producing poisonous gas during the war. Now all that remains are a few ruins and a population of thousands of wild rabbits. The island is a little off the beaten path and required a couple of trains and a ferry to get there but was totally worth it. We hired bikes and cycled around the island stopping frequently to feed the rabbits with some rabbit food we had bought on the way. At certain parts of the island as soon as they heard the rustle of the food bag lots of rabbits came running. We had a fantastic day and it's definitely worth a visit.

Got to leave it there for now. It's time to check out!

We only had a short trip to Osaka staying just 3 nights although we'll be back for a night before flying home. It was pretty straightforward to get to from Kyoto taking only 30 minutes by train and so on our first day here we found ourselves with almost a full afternoon having got an early train and checked in by lunch time. We spent the first afternoon visiting the castle which was a short metro ride away. The castle has been burnt down a few times in the past but dates from 1583 originally. Inside there's a museum spanning over 8 floors with a viewing platform around the top offering fantastic views of the surrounding area. We finished off the day with another view this time from the Umeda sky tower which again was easy to access by the metro. We stayed for sunset and took a few night photos but the heat had turned it into quite a hazy evening so you couldn't quite see as far as you might on a clearer day. 

On our second day we decided to visit what is apparently Osaka's top attraction - the aquarium. It was a good aquarium with a decent range of sea creatures and a huge tank through the middle of the building that you gradually worked your way around. They had a special exhibit to coincide with the Finding Dory film and had some of the fish from the film in smaller tanks. They also had a fantastic range of deep sea creatures and some brilliant jelly fish. The aquarium is beside a large complex which amongst other things housed Legoland; there was a full size Lego giraffe outside but we decided to give it a miss. There was also one of Japan's largest Ferris wheels which we decided to visit the next day. We had lunch at the Luna café which is very close to the aquarium. It's run by a very friendly Australian and serves a range of Western food including cottage pie - we opted for a pizza which was very nice but very filling. Decided to have a rest back at the hotel before heading back out to take a few night shots. 

On the last day we visited the Shitennoji temple which has a five storied pagoda that you can climb up. It was very hot and the pagoda felt even warmer so we didn't stay up there long. It was a nice temple but there was quite a bit of landscaping going in and it looked a bit like they were ramping up for some sort of event. Afterwards we went back to the same place as the aquarium to ride the Tempozan Ferris wheel. You could queue for a totally transparent car on the wheel or get straight on. We decided to get straight on as didn't think it was worth the wait. We'd read some reviews that had suggested the same thing and it was going to be about an hour to wait otherwise. The cars were air conditioned which was amazing and offered fantastic views of the surrounding bay area. You could see Universal Studios across the port and inland flashes of lightning over Osaka which was pretty awesome. We had lunch in the nearby complex and browsed in some of the shops. They also had a small petting zoo type place in there with animals ranging from kangaroo's, a pig and several large tortoise, to rabbits, dogs and a llama; a little odd but pretty popular, we gave it a miss. We headed back out in the evening to see some of the lights in the nearby Dotonbori district which was only a short walk from the hotel. There were paper lanterns lining the river and the usual array of bright lights. There was lots to see with large 3d models on the outsides of restaurants. It was pretty busy with lots of people out for meals and drinks but a good atmosphere.

That's all for Osaka, next stop Hiroshima.

Well we've been here 6 days and I've only just got around to this. It took just over two hours to get here from Odawara station on the bullet train and was fairly straight forward to get to the hotel. We're right next to a metro stop but have only used it a few times as unlike Tokyo, there are only two metro lines so it doesn't cover as much of the city. It's been really hot generally keeping in the mid thirties during the day time which has made walking around a bit of an ordeal but despite that we've got about a lot and even found time to climb a mountain.

The mountain was Fushimi Shrine which is one of the top sights to visit here. It's famous for the thousands of Tori gates that line a trail up and back down a mountain side. We picked what turned out to be one of the warmest days for it but made it all the way to the top managing to see some wild monkeys on the walk back down which was fantastic. 

We've also seen a lot of temples and shrines around the city and some spectacular pagodas. It's not far stretch to say there's a shrine or temple in every district and more often than not more than one. We're on the move again tomorrow heading for Osaka which is only a short distance away, but I'll try and come back and add a little more detail about Kyoto if I get a chance. In the meantime check out the album, linked below!