We started at New Parliament, guessing that it would be more crowded so we got there as soon as it opened. Let me digress for a moment - the word "crowded" almost made me laugh! How many of you have visited Washington DC? I defy you to go there on a sunny day and not be trampled by the mobs of people out seeing all that there is to see. When we went to DC years ago, we were a couple of the first to get into the Capital Building, but there were hundreds of other people lined up behind us. Canberra...quite different. A "large crowd" would be two families accidentally getting kind of close to one another.
New Parliament is meant to be accessible by the public. We walked right in the front door, stopped at the information desk to ask where to meet the free tour (FREE! Yay!), and took some photos as we made our way over to the tour's starting point. I know we were some of the frist people there, but our tour group was about 10 people. The guide was absolutely wonderful by the way (she gave me some resources to look at and compare Aussie governmental systems to the US for my American Government class). She took us around to the main places - both houses of Parliament, the main reception halls, etc. The tour lasted 45 minutes, but it was very worth the time. We learned a lot.
After the tour we took the elevator to the roof. That's right - the ROOF. New Parliament was designed so as to not take away from the structure of the hill. Instead of building the place right on top...they dug a big hole, built the building in the hole, and then built the sides up to make it look like the hill was before they started! Strange idea at first, and it does look unusual, but I'll bet they save a ton on heating and cooling! Anyway, from the roof you can see all the way down past the Old Parliament, over the water, down the Anzac Parade to the War Memorial. Go look through the slideshow on the right for pictures. The photo below was taken from the roof looking up the flag flying high above. One of my favorites.
After the New Parliament, we walked down to the Old Parliament...and paid $2 to get in. That's right - new is free, old and not in use you pay to get in. History has its price, I guess. It was built in 1927 and was designed to last for 50 years and then be replaced. It was in use until 1988 so it outlived its intended life. Boy did they need to move! Old Parliament was built for 300 people to work in, but when they finally moved in 1988 3,500 people worked there! Everything was small and cramped. They even, at one point, had to take out restrooms to make space for more offices! It had several additions built onto it, but even so it needed to be replaced. The most striking thing was how close the two houses of parliament were to each other - maybe 50 paces. I'm sure if an arguement got heated in one house the other could hear what was being yelled.
By the time we were done there we were "museumed out" and very hungry. We typed "pizza" into the GPS and found a food court at a mall across the river. We decided that we wanted to drive home in the daylight so we could see the countryside as we drove, so we grabbed food and left. There were a couple other things we might have done (the National Gallery, the science museum, etc.) but our feet were tired and the sun sets around 5:30 this time of year.
Well, the bush was pretty much what you would expect. Rolling hills, losts of cattle grazing, fences, and eucalyptus trees. Very pretty, but I imagine it would be even prettier in the spring. We took a small "walkabout" on a scenic drive through Goulburn (I think) where Clarice got a photo of "The Big Merino" as we drove past. I'm not putting the picture here, go look at the slideshow!
We got home late and tired, but we enjoyed the trip.
Jon
