Quick chinese takeaway

We got the flavour for China when we visited Shanghai last year. Since China have introduced a free 72 hour transit visa this year, we took advantage and stayed two nights in Beijing on the way back to Bristol.

We went from late 20s temperatures to -9, ouch, and neither of us had a coat! It was just too cold to do too much. We did go and see Tiananmen Square, one of the largest city squares in the world:

And the Forbidden City, where the emperors lived exclusively for 500 years from 1400.

(I know this is naughty, but here is a photo from Wiki that shows the magnitude of the site as viewed from Jingshan gardens to the north, we were staying in a Hutong just next to these gardens):

We managed to squeeze in as much local food as possible! We also went to watch an acrobatic show one night which included a death defying motorbike stunt in a metal globe, google "Chinese acrobats motorbike stunt" if you want to see it on youtube!

Leaving Australia...

We felt a bit down about leaving Australia and a bit depressed that our 12 months off is already over halfway through. So for our last day, we checked out early, had a full cooked breakfast and spent the day at the Sydney aquarium on Darling Harbour. It was super. The displays were good and the fish were really colourful. They had a large tank full of big sharks which was a bit spine-tingling!

They also had dugongs, platypus and penguins!

After the aquarium, we went for another wonderful ice cream at Messina. Salted caramel with white chocolate being my favourite and pavlova flavour Pete's! 

Then we headed to the airport in good time.

More Sydney

In our last few days in Australia, we explored Sydney a bit more. We stayed at Wesley College at Sydney University as the students have finished for the year. After a deep clean and new beds, the halls of residence are available to book as hotel rooms. It was a beautiful building set in lovely grounds that reminded us of Hogwarts!

We walked to Darling Harbour to see the Christmas decorations!

We ate and drank out plenty including seafood at the fish market, the best gelato ever at Messina, drinks at the Opera Bar overlooking the sun setting over the bridge, opera house and city. 

We went to see a classical concert in the Sydney Opera House, in the main concert hall in the further most "sail". The view out across the harbour as the city lights were coming on was fantastic.

We walked around the Botanical Gardens and enjoyed more views of the harbour.

And we topped up our tans as this is the last sun we'll be seeing for a little while.

Shake, rattle and roll

Our favourite thing about New South Wales Art Gallery?

 ....... Salted caramel milkshake!

Howzat!

Me + Adelaide Oval + Ashes 2nd Test + stupid Xmas hat + beer.

Need I say more?!......

Phew, sold it!

It took a few gumtree ads and posters in lots of hostels, but we managed to shift the car, only making a small loss, definately a lot cheaper than renting. Bonza!

We spent most of our time in Darwin sorting the car. We ate out a fair bit and enjoyed the wharf and the fish feeding! We also went to an open air Christmas Carol concert near the beach which had lots of singing along and amazing fireworks. Then we were back on the train, The Ghan this time to travel from Darwin to Sydney.

It's such fun travelling on these trains, seeing the changing landscapes. I must have been a train spotter in a previous life!!

The train stopped in Alice Springs for a few hours. We squeezed in a lush brekkie, walking tour and a brief walk up Anzac Hill. I love the gap in the distance formed by a river many years ago:

We would have liked to stop off for a few days in Alice to go to The Big Rock, but alas not possible this time with the quiet season's reduced rail timetable. Next time....

The route involved a four day stopover in Adelaide. We found Desiree's place on AirBnB and what a gem! She was an ace host along with a great random bunch of people staying in her home, including a celebrity TV chef from Malaysia! Too much fun each night!! We took in some sights and sounds of Adelaide, including museum, art gallery and a nice botanical gardens which is well kept and free for the public. Lucky public!