Canberra

Trip Start Jun 15, 2007
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Trip End Jun 12, 2008


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Where I stayed
Tourist Hotel Queanbeyan
Mid City Motor Inn Queanbeyan
(Canberra hotels)

Flag of Australia  , Australian Capital Territory,
Wednesday, August 1, 2007

We have had 3 nights and two days to explore the nations capital. On the first night we stayed at a Motel called the Mid City Motor Inn in Queanbeyan, about 10km outside the city. It was a 90 dollar motel but no better than cheaper ones we have stayed at previously so the next 2 nights were spent, also in Queanbeyan but at a hotel called the Tourist Hotel at 60 dollars a night.

The short daily drive to Canberra took only a few minutes. The first day we Spent in the National Museum but we were a little disappointed because most of the exhibits were of a contemporary nature. Not really a museum at all in our eyes, but still good value at NIL dollars. Canberra has extremely cold temparatures by Australian standards with the icy wind blowing off the surrounding snowy mountains at night. However, we ate at an outside table in the museum cafe and it was almost too hot in the day to sit outside. The centre of the museum consisted of a garden which was a concrete abstract map of Australia. Chris expected to see a garden but no-one gets lucky 100 percent of the time.

In the afternoon we visited the Black Mountain, a hill with a scenic lookout over the city and the Testra (Their equivalent of BT) tower. There was a notice on a post in the carpark which said that the waves radiating from the tower could knock out the security systems on some cars. We soon found out that ours was one of them when it wouldn't start. Eventually we found a member of staff who gave us a leaflet explaining how to bypass the security on our particular model. Apparantly the Toyota Vientas always get knocked out by the waves. Next to the Telstra tower were the National Botanic Gardens, our third gardens after Melbourne and Adelaide. They were just as good as the others but different in lots of ways.

Our second full day of exploring led us back into Canberra on the bridge over the big lake where there was a fountain in honour of Captain Cook, I accidentally read the sign incorrectly as Captain Cock. For some reason Chris was quite amused by this.

The road over the bridge led to Capitol Hill and the Parliament Building which we took          half a day to explore after a one hour guided tour. We saw both houses, the House of Representitives which is roughly the same as our House of Commons, and the Senate which is like the House of Lords but with more powers. The building is fabulous and very modern, opened only in 1988.

In the afternoon we went down the hill and visited the old Parliament Building where we were guided round by a woman called Bev who was a great guide. We learned a lot from her. Thanks Bev.

We then attempted to go to the National War Memorial but went round in circles for about an hour. When we eventually found it we only had time to see about half of the displays before it closed. If we ever go back to Canberra we would like to visit again and spend a half day there.
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