DOWN UNDER with TT-ONR-NRN (+ other overseas ventures)

[railfan99]

On the Sydney to Canberra NSW TrainLink trains, one will often see kangaroos (that by and large prefer open grasslands, with not too many trees) between Joppa Junction (junction of the lines to Melbourne and Canberra) and Queanbeyan (in NSW, eight kilometres or so before one reaches Canberra in the ACT).

 

[nw1]

Tremendous. Harder for those on the island continent to match you at that age given how the seas separate us. Handy that you have many European countries within reach. But I've still not been to Luxembourg.

My definition of 'visiting' a country does not include an airline transit stop (i.e. not exiting from the airport). I must stay overnight or travel by surface transport through or within a nation.

It's also questionable whether travelling through without stopping by land counts as a proper "visit". If it does, I can claim both Luxembourg (road) and Liechtenstein (rail). If not, I can claim neither. To be honest I veer towards the latter.
Though I would say that wandering round Brussels for 2 hours while waiting for a train connection counts as a visit to Belgium (for example), albeit a short one.

I agree about the airline criteria, I've changed planes in Chicago and Atlanta but don't feel I can "claim" Illinois or Georgia.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

On the Sydney to Canberra NSW TrainLink trains, one will often see kangaroos (that by and large prefer open grasslands, with not too many trees) between Joppa Junction (junction of the lines to Melbourne and Canberra) and Queanbeyan (in NSW, eight kilometres or so before one reaches Canberra in the ACT).

I've got a picture of a field alongside the railway on the approach to Canberra, with probably 50 kangaroos seemingly in a team meeting.
A couple of hours later, on the return journey, the field was empty!
Last month there some on the railway tracks just beyond the terminal station.

Another special sight in Canberra is the spiky helmets some cyclists wear to keep the diving magpies at bay in the breeding season.
It makes them (the cyclists) look like Prussian army officers.