Canberra 2

UPDATE: I wanted a blog format that was wider and allowed more to be seen with less scrolling. Hope you like the change!

This could be a long post - there is so much to talk about. I think I'll break it into Saturday and Sunday. Lots more pictures in the slideshow to the right->

Saturday:

We started off on the north side of Lake Burley Griffen (names after Walter Burley Griffen who won the contest to design the capital). The first stop was the Canberra Exhibit for a quick "what do we need to see" and a bit of breakfast.

We walked all along the north bank of the water taking lots of pictures and enjoying the scenery. This one is of the National Carillion. A carillion is a musical instrument consisting of at least 22 bells. The National Carillion has 54 and is played about 2x a week.

Next we crossed Constitution Ave and walked up the Anzac Parade. Anzac stood originally for Australian and New Zealand Army Corp, but now is more of a "spirit" or "sense of Anzac pride". I bought a book about the Anzac landing in WWI - the first Australian battle ever, and I'll tell you more about it when I learn it myself. There are lots of memorials and monuments along either side of the parade all leading to the Australian War Memorial.

Lighting wasn't the best for that shot with the sun behind it, but you get the idea. It has a beautiful museum inside dedicated to all the men and women who have every fought for Australia. In the very center is a bio of every single Australian ever to be awarded the Victoria Cross - similar to the US Medal of Honor.

Next we went back to the lakefront and walked down to the National Carillion to see it up close. They had a recital on Sunday, but we were inside Old Parliament so we missed it. Oh well. The Carillion is on an island easily accessible by a foot bridge. The whole lakefront is all open parks with trails and play areas for families. Because Canberra is less than 100 years old, it only has 300,000 people, but eventually it will look a lot like Washington DC and be a lot larger. Washington is, after all, over 200 years old - bit of a head start.

After all that walking around we were pretty pooped and hungry. We punched in "pizza" into the GPS and found Clarice's home away from home - Pizza Hut. We actually tried a local place, but one look inside and we said, "how about NO on this one." We ate in the car and then headed off to the Telstra Tower. Telstra is a big telecommunications company here in OZ, and they bought this tower that is situated on top of Black Mountain and overlooks Canberra. During the day I'm sure the views are spectacular, but it was dark when we got there. We saved it for late in the day because 1) it was open late - remember most things close by 5:00 and 2) I thought the city would be all lit up an beautiful at night. Well, it was...but the government buildings were not nearly as lit up as I thought they would be. We enjoyed it, but if I had to do over again I would go during the day.

After that we headed back to the hotel for some rest (my poor feet!) and to watch Australia play France in Rugby Union. Well, that and Wimbleton. We have 4-5 channels at our place and the hotel had more sports channels than that. I was a happy camper!

Day 2 tomorrow...or more likely when I get to it. Today is July 4th so HAPPY INDEPENDANCE DAY! Clarice should be home in a bit (had to work! Ha! Wait, so did I...) and we are going to the movies tonight. Better be good, costs about $30 just for the tickets every time we go...

Jon