Melbourne Brompton Pastry Tour – Getting There by the Overland.

Posted on by kymdt

I travelled to Melbourne with my Brompton Bike to investigate the pastry scene in Melbourne. This was no ordinary trip. The pastry tour was to be conducted by Brompton and I would get to Melbourne by train.

The Overland train service between Adelaide and Melbourne leaves twice a week and travels during the day. It has a history of more than 130 years and its current name was given to it 98 years ago. While it stopped being hauled by a steam locomotive in 1950, it is still an enjoyable step back in time. The train I travelled on was a special “mongrel” as it also had a couple of carriages from the Ghan that had been used on the previous trip for Tasting Australia. It was very pleasant to access the Ghan lounge car in addition to the premium carriage.

I rode my bike to the Adelaide Parklands Terminal with all of my luggage in my bag on the front of the Brompton Bike. While there are generous checked luggage limits, any Brompton rider would prefer to keep their bike with them. Fortunately, there is plenty of space onboard the Red Premium carriage to take the bike on board with you. Indeed, the check-in staff seemed reluctant to check in items other than standard luggage.

The price of my trip was about the same as it would cost to fly (at that particular point in time) and enabled me to enjoy the premium service, which included cooked breakfast, fantastic curry of the day and morning and afternoon tea. While Melbourne is around 650 kilometres away from Adelaide the rail route is 828 kilometres and takes about 10 and half hours.

When one trip ends…

Posted on by helenhmk

On the last day of a holiday you always have your mind on the time… from when you get up to packing the suitcase for a final time (aka – I’m sure I fit one more item in of if I try hard enough..), checking out, to calculating the time you need to be back at your hotel to get your bags (no… do I really have to move them again) to travel to the airport. Today was that day.

We enjoyed our last cycle to Toyasu to catch up with a friend for lunch – sushi at the new fish market. The weather was perfect… a great day to be on the bike… and the sushi was fabulous- better than what we get in ADL and fitting last meal in Tokyo.

… now we just need to plan the next one 😉

Final breakfast

Posted on by kymdt

For those of you concerned that I might not say anything anymore (based on my capybara experience), rest assured that only related to the fact that no words are needed for a looping video of a capybara!

Today’s breakfast is courtesy of NHK World’s Dive in Tokyo which takes you to a different district of Tokyo each show.

We saw Bakery Bank on the Kabutcho episode. The bakery makes delightful pastry and other bread products. The coffee (and ceramics) from Coin downstairs are the perfect accompaniment.

Afternoon tea and night lights…

Posted on by helenhmk

We booked a traditional afternoon tea at a function centre which looks out onto a small tradition Japanese garden Happo-en.

As you can see by the photos it’s a real delight. The Koi fish were amazing- we could have spent hours watching them.. and their colour was amazing!

While enjoying the afternoon tea, we realised this was the very first garden we visited on our very first day in Japan back in 2008 when we had a goodwill guide provide a half day tour.

We finished the afternoon tea just on sunset. At this time the garden is lit up in red, highlighting the garden. This is only done in autumn and it really highlights the features of the garden.

Snacks…

Posted on by helenhmk

Ah… Anthony Bourdain (chef come TV travel explorer) recommended the egg salad sandwiches from 7-11.

While the crusts are cut off – I must admit it was pretty good.

Here is the taiyaki snack we had down the road afterwards…

…super yummo

Artisans…

Posted on by kymdt

An artisan is a person skilled in making a product by hand – according to the dictionary. But, perhaps it’s more than that – a focus on the product almost to the exclusion of reason…

They appear in the most unlikely spots – usually where they love to live – not where the most feet fall.

Thus, it is was with some surprise that- but perhaps not really in Japan – that we happened across an artisan chocolate store in the middle of fields on the way to the Izumo airport. This isn’t Haighs it has a dedication to seasonal chocolates and the variation of flavour based on different sugar sources. Made by hand and with love.

It makes a hot chocolate and a chocolate muffin something very special.

The unplanned is a delight..

Posted on by helenhmk

While half the fun of a holiday might be the planning, there are those times when everything just works out. Today’s ride was one of those.

The ride was a 25+km loop ride planned by Kym while on the train as we went to Hirai Station from Suidobashi. Before we started we bought a snack of a small cake from the shop in the station, un-covered the bikes and then set out on the route. As you can see by the map below, it took us along the Arakawa River, more recent housing development on the opposite side of the river (not as interesting as the old suburbs as there are less laneways, shops etc)… the Kansai-Rikai Park ( good views of Mt Fuji when there is no cloud), and back along and across the river (not forgetting to use the elevator to access the bridge) to the train station.

Here are the pictures taken along the route..

…. And we ended perfectly to time the sunset for the view- could not have planned it if we tried.

Great day of cycling..!