Canberra

On Tuesday, 25 March, after the girls and John had gone off to school, my parents and I went to Canberra for the day. The morning was fine - sunny, a few clouds, but it started to rain by the time we left and it rained all day. We stopped in Bungendore for a coffee, and when we got out of the car my mother approached a woman to ask where a nice cafe was, and then said, "So, do you think the sun will come out today?" The woman replied, "I hope not, I'm a farmer!"
The first place we went to in Canberra was the Royal Australian Mint. They were undergoing renovations, so we couldn't do the proper tour and look down at the machines at work, but there was a nice display of the history of coins and coin-making in Australia, and we were able to strike our very own $1.00 coin.
We went to the CBD next and wandered around a large mall, too bad about the weather, because it would have been nice to see some of the outside of the city, not just a shopping centre and from the car windows! We did go to the War Memorial, which was really good. It would take one really full day to see it all, there were so many artifacts, photographs, and lots of well done dioramas. We drove around the old Parliament Building and past the new one, and drove up and down the streets with the embassies on them. The USA and Israeli embassies both had traffic barricades around them, like the American embassy in Ottawa, and most of the others had locked gates and security cameras. We were able to drive right up to the Canadian High Commision, which also shared a driveway with New Zealand - no worries there!
Canberra is an interesting city, Bill Bryson has a lot to say about it, including, "It's a very strange city, in that it's not really a city at all, but rather an extremely large park with a city hidden in it." It's not very walker-friendly - not that we had a chance to walk around at all, but everything is very spread out. I think he is mostly right. It is beautifully laid out, with views along Anzac Parade from the War Memorial across to the parliament buildings, but there were no nice little enclaves like other capital cities, with restaurants and shops; it seemed very sterile. I kept comparing it to Ottawa, with all of its little neighbourhoods and knowing you will always end up on a main road going somewhere to find something, but there was none of this in Canberra, except right down in the middle in the City Centre. I will go again, and John wants to see Canberra, so we will keep you updated on our impressions of the Australian capital!