A Night Away in Canberra

Last night we drove 3 hours south to Canberra, the capital of Australia. No, really...it is. It's not Sydney. Nor Melbourne, but Canberra. Pronounced Can-burr-ah with the emphasis on Can. First...a word about the highway between Sydney and Canberra. That is one dark ride. Once you leave the Sydney area, there are no lights on the highway. The countryside (and I do mean, countryside) is dark. You don't see any lights. No lighted billboards. Not even any houses. Does civilization just end once you leave the city?

We found London Circuit which is the circle that our hotel was on. And in the words of Phil, when we got into the room, "Man what a dump." It wasn't really, but did not exactly look like the pictures on the internet. And "lakeside view" did not apply, though we paid $10 extra for it. The next morning, if you looked really far between the row of trees, you could see glimpses of Lake Burly Griffin. (Nope...no idea where that name came from. But it did make me laugh several times.) Hmm...lakeview, indeed.

We passed up the breakfast buffet at the hotel ($26...yeah right) and stopped at a food court at the Canberra Centre on our way to our first stop. The Australian War Memorial.

You walked up the front stairs through a walkway and then came to this.

You can't see it well, but there's an eternal flame at the top of the water pool there. And on the upper level behind all those open windows on each side are two huge walls, called The Roll of Honour, with the names of every Australian who, I think, has died while serving in the military. You see little red poppy flowers pressed into the cracks between sheets of names.

The War Memorial Musuem has sections on WWI, WWII, an aircraft hall, Australia's Unknown Soldier, Anzac hall, and among other exhibits, also a section on Conflicts from 1945 till today. That's where this helicopter was...in the Vietnam section.

Thoroughly enjoyed the whole museum. Could've spent more hours there, but I think my other half had seen all he wanted to see. So alas...I did not get to read every plaque, picture, and display there. But still...was good.On the steps of the War Memorial you can see the old Parliament House (the white building in front) and the new Parliament building (the modern building in the back that looks like it has a big compass on the top of it). Cool view.

We then went to the old parliament building and went on a tour of the building. After that, we drove over to the new parliament building and looked around as well. Saw both the Senate and House of Representative chambers.

We drove back to Sydney tonight. Saw a full rainbow...both ends! Both of us had never seen a full arc before. Also drove through seriously torrential rain and if that wasn't enough, then thru soupy fog. Quite the ride! I white-knuckled through it a few times.

Well, with the time change that happens here tonight, it's now almost midnight. So on that note...
(Note to any callers from the states, we are now 15 hours ahead. Karen, thinking about the call at 5:00 am one morning...especially, take note.) :)