Scenic Sydney: Woolwich, Liverpool and Yellow Rock

Tomorrow I’m leaving with some mates to go to Thailand. I’m approaching the trip with both excitement and trepidation. Travelling (ironically for what has mainly been a travel blog) is not my favourite activity. In my case, it is the destination and not the journey that matters. I enjoy travelling when I’m in a location. I hate flying and getting there.

Last weekend, my wife had a friend’s birthday luncheon in Woolwich. As nominated chauffeur, I drove her out there. We had a later engagement with another friend in Willoughby so geographically it made sense. My plans for the day didn’t quite work geographically, though it made for an interesting day. I dropped my wife to her luncheon at Woolwich first up. Given that I had a few hours to utilise, I decided to travel to Liverpool.

Sorry if I misled some people into coming to this blog. I went to Liverpool, New South Wales, not Liverpool, England.

Why was I going to Liverpool? (It’s not a traditional tourist destination) I went to engage in my new nerdy habit. Well, I don’t know if I’ve done it enough to call it a habit yet.

I’ve always read quite a bit and have played video games so, stuff it, why not comics? I sort of ended up here after playing the game ‘The Wolf Among Us’ which is set in the ‘Fables’ universe. The game itself was okay, though not the best of the Telltale games (if this is over your head, don’t worry, it’s giving me nerd cred). However I found the world the game was set in more interesting. Thus, go to the source material.

I’ve read some other comics and graphic novels before (Pax Romana was disappointing, Maus is fantastic, so too is V for Vendetta) and so far I’m enjoying the Fables ones. So I feel pretty good about having driven 50 minutes from Woolwich to Liverpool and then 50 minutes from Liverpool to Woolwich.

Back in Woolwich I still had some time to burn so I decided to wander around the park near the luncheon venue. To my surprise there was an art exhibition in the park! It was pretty interesting and is in a great location with some pretty magnificent views of Sydney. My favourite was the stick horse. The dog catching the tennis ball was also quite nifty.

After this impromptu art exhibition (well, I’m sure that the exhibition itself wasn’t impromptu, it actually seemed pretty well organised. My visit to it was impromptu) we caught up with our friends in Willoughby.

The next day, we made the huge trek to Yellow Rock (Sydney’s least culturally diverse suburb apparently) for a picnic. I’d forgotten just how magnificent the view from Yellow Point lookout it, and the simple beauty of Australia. Not that I’m going to stop travelling and seeing other places, but it’s easy to forget what’s around you sometimes. Overall I’m with Henry Lawson that Australia’s landscape is pretty tough, rough and well, flat and boring in a lot of places. The bush itself looks to kill you, either through sudden drops, sudden drop bears, snakes or fires. Damn though, it looks nice.

I’m hoping to put up some posts whilst in Thailand, but I haven’t made any firm arrangements for internet, nor do I know when exactly I’ll have time to do its. It won’t be as organised as Japan was, but I hope to have some cool experiences and to get some of that across on here.

Day 4 – Up to the Misty Mountains – Hakone

Sketchy internet here readers! It’s entirely possible that I’ll lose all of this progress. My mobile internet is working to view websites and social media (like OMG, imagine if that didn’t work) but WordPress really didn’t like it. I’ve made my way done to the lobby to leech their wifi, so far, so good.

Today we left Shinjuku 😦 and took the Odakyu Romance Car down to Hakone. The idea was for us to leave our hotel with plenty of time, have a nice leisurely time for breakfast and then an easy trip down here. Well, leaving early (my wife’s idea) was in fact a brilliant idea because I got us lost in Shinjuku station trying to find the Odakyu portion. At one point the signs required us to go through a ticketed section, and I was too foolish to realise that I needed all four tickets (reservations + free passes), not just one. So we walked out and around Shinjuku station, which was quite a mission and makes my Lord of The Rings allusion in the title all the more telling.

The RomanceCar itself was ok, but our giant luggage does not make for a comfortable trip. We then (mainly me) got quite stressed on the packed Tozan car to our little station. The old switchback train is nice for sightseeing, but not nice with huge luggage and a sardined in carriage that you can’t see a clear way to get out of. We avoided bringing big luggage to Japan last time because I knew it would be difficult to cart around, but then we ended up having to buy more luggage to bring our goods home. I refuse to buy more luggage again. That said, all the stress and worry was for nothing and we made it fine to our hotel.

And what a hotel. Japan’s oldest apparently. Has had guests including the Imperial Family, the Swedish royals, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas MacArthur (after the war) and John Lennon, who is best known for his famous quote: “You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not.” (Thank you Dinner for Schmucks for that gem).

We went up a couple of stops to the Hakone Open Air museum, the only real ‘site’ I had planned for us to visit today. The museum features a lot of sculptures (outside, hence the name, it’s not just a clever title). The sculptures were fascinating, and we both found the Picasso exhibit a bit unimpressive (he draws like a child, yes that’s the point but c’mon man – I’ll note this was not my observation, but I mostly agree).

The museum was where we had a brief ‘lunch’ as we had not yet really had a proper meal at all during the day. The museum gift shop after also had the best jigsaw puzzle I’ve ever seen (and bought), but there’ll be more on that in the post trip gift/goods recap. Also I almost forgot the best part – relaxing with their free foot bath hot springs. That was awesome. My funky toes in particular need a bit of loving. I don’t treat them right. More like poordiatry – am I right?

After that, back to the hotel – not before seeing the cutest and cheekiest primary school kids on the train. The hotel itself has been a big part of today. Went for a great swim in the indoor pool and for a stroll in their gardens. I was going to blog later about my hopeful nuding up, having dinner at the French restaurant here and using the onsen. Hopefully you figured out that’s not quite the order I plan to do those activities in.

Tomorrow we’ll be out and about a bit more exploring around the Hakone region. Hopefully I can recap dinner and my onsen experience (if I man up for it) then.