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Two days in Canberra
Aug. 17th, 2004 07:54 amI promised to tell you about my trip!
We flew out of Brisbane on Friday night, heading into bumpiness on our way into Canberra. I found out that I don't like bumpiness when I'm flying. In fact, it terrifies me. (Especially flying on Friday the 13th) We arrived in Canberra about 8.30, finally found our hotel (Matt has trouble following my road directions. When will he learn that I can read a map, and I don't have to hold it upside down to do so? *g*) and headed out into town to find dinner. It was pretty quiet, which surprised me, because Friday nights in Brisbane are usually pretty busy. We ended up having kebabs, went back to the hotel and collapsed into bed.
Saturday morning we woke up and caught some of the opening ceremony. Then breakfast and out for our day. We went up Mt Ainsley and froze in the clouds (it's freezing!) before heading off to Parliment House. It was just awesome. The amount of beautiful timber and stone in the building. We took a tour and visited the House of Reps and the Senate. There was a chance that we could have seen the senate at work, but they sorted things out the night before. (FTA and same-sex marriages)
After this we went down to Old Parliment House which is amazing. As well as being a portrait gallery, it's a brilliant historical site. They've set up rooms to look as they might have when their occupants were there (Neville Bonner's was one of my favourites) We also caught the light and sound history show in the House of Reps, which had the world's scariest moving dummy representing 'our senior statesman, Malcolm Fraser'.
Finally we headed over to the Australian War Memorial. It was amazing - the amount of history - and quite sad at times. The World War One and Two exhibits are quite comprehensive. The Vietnam and Korean war exhibits weren't as good, but they have just received some money to improve them. The hall of reflection was sobering. I didn't realise that my great, great grandfather's name was there, but I did lay a little poppy next to the tomb of the unknmown soldier.
Saturday night was the revolving restaurant up the top of Telstra Tower. Incredibally good food and views.
Sunday morning we went up the tower again to see Canberra by day. Then we went to the National Museum of Australia which could be easily renamed the 'Museum of Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra and look, there's these other parts of our country too'. It was a real disappointment. Very few of their artifacts had real meaning to me, only recent historical things, such as a shirt from the Bali bombing. Compared to Old Parliment House and the War memorial, it was a poor show. Nice architecture though.
After that we had lunch and wandered around a bit, had a quick walk along the lake, and headed back out to the airport to come home.
We flew out of Brisbane on Friday night, heading into bumpiness on our way into Canberra. I found out that I don't like bumpiness when I'm flying. In fact, it terrifies me. (Especially flying on Friday the 13th) We arrived in Canberra about 8.30, finally found our hotel (Matt has trouble following my road directions. When will he learn that I can read a map, and I don't have to hold it upside down to do so? *g*) and headed out into town to find dinner. It was pretty quiet, which surprised me, because Friday nights in Brisbane are usually pretty busy. We ended up having kebabs, went back to the hotel and collapsed into bed.
Saturday morning we woke up and caught some of the opening ceremony. Then breakfast and out for our day. We went up Mt Ainsley and froze in the clouds (it's freezing!) before heading off to Parliment House. It was just awesome. The amount of beautiful timber and stone in the building. We took a tour and visited the House of Reps and the Senate. There was a chance that we could have seen the senate at work, but they sorted things out the night before. (FTA and same-sex marriages)
After this we went down to Old Parliment House which is amazing. As well as being a portrait gallery, it's a brilliant historical site. They've set up rooms to look as they might have when their occupants were there (Neville Bonner's was one of my favourites) We also caught the light and sound history show in the House of Reps, which had the world's scariest moving dummy representing 'our senior statesman, Malcolm Fraser'.
Finally we headed over to the Australian War Memorial. It was amazing - the amount of history - and quite sad at times. The World War One and Two exhibits are quite comprehensive. The Vietnam and Korean war exhibits weren't as good, but they have just received some money to improve them. The hall of reflection was sobering. I didn't realise that my great, great grandfather's name was there, but I did lay a little poppy next to the tomb of the unknmown soldier.
Saturday night was the revolving restaurant up the top of Telstra Tower. Incredibally good food and views.
Sunday morning we went up the tower again to see Canberra by day. Then we went to the National Museum of Australia which could be easily renamed the 'Museum of Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra and look, there's these other parts of our country too'. It was a real disappointment. Very few of their artifacts had real meaning to me, only recent historical things, such as a shirt from the Bali bombing. Compared to Old Parliment House and the War memorial, it was a poor show. Nice architecture though.
After that we had lunch and wandered around a bit, had a quick walk along the lake, and headed back out to the airport to come home.
