Capital P

So we decided that after 8 hours of driving yesterday we would walk today. So we headed off from ANU to the lake and across the bridge to the Parliamentary precinct. It was too early to visit the National Library, so we went and checked out the main axis of Burley Griffins dream.

By then it was getting on for nine so we headed up to the Old Parliament House. The attendants werearranging  so floral tributes to Gough as we wandered in. The building is now a museum for democracy and it was fun roving around. It was so small!

Marjan enjoyed being speaker.

We had morning tea inside with a nice view of one of the old courtyards. Time to move on to the new house on the hill.

There was a bit of security about but nothing overbearing and everyone making fun of my Mr Grumpy T-shirt. We got in for a bit of a second reading debate, but not a lot of actual parliamentarians. Still nice to see democracy in action.

Certainly bigger and more spacious than the old. But the highlight was the roof.

Back down the hill we went via one of the old parliamentary gardens. The rose garden outside was a bit of a disappointment, unlike most of the rest which was living up to our hopes.

We decided we needed lunch, so the National Portrait gallery cafeteria was called for, with an outside table and a nice view. Reinforced we wandered the gallery. Some nice stuff. I was taken by the liveliness of Ms Montez, the cheekiness of the Barry Humphrey's self portrait and the lovely photo of Margaret Whitlam at dusk. 

Next stop was the High Court. It is an odd building with each of the three courts apparently suspended in mid air. Nice comfy couches.

Then the National Gallery. It is building quite a collection. We concentrated on the Australian section and quite enjoyed that. Plenty to like...Bracks for me. We did not see everything, just not enough time, but we did enjoy a coffee at tree top level. Canberra has so may nice cofee places in these national monuments.

Back on the road via the sculpture garden and over the bridge to the Carillion.

We dodged around Canberrians as they jogged, cycled and generally enjoyed the lake. We strolled back home and were absolutely spent. We had been out for over 10 hours walked at least 8km between buildings and spent time wandering each. A full day! We decide that dinner was a bit hard so we stayed on campus and had a caf type lunch.

Vale Gough

Ok so this is a travel blog not a political one.....but..........we heard about the death of Gough Whitlam via a phone call from Keyne whilst driving past the dog on his tucker box and I had to say something. This immigrant's son would not have a degree, and possibly not even a sense of justice if it weren't for Gough. The free education is obvious and a whole generation flourished because of it. The other was a timing thing. I suppose i developed a political sensibility at the time of Gough and Malcolm striding the political stage like colossuses. Whilst neither one is as angelic nor the other as demonic as they were idealised at the time, the battle between good and evil was a way for a young man to start seeing the political fight between self interest and the broader good. So bye Gough from a grateful spaniard.

The actual travel? Well it was mostly a drive so nothing particularly exciting. We drove out via Yea and Seymour to avoid Melbourne peak hour traffic. I always like the Goulburn valley around Trawool. They are doing a rail trail that looks like it will be excellent. We stopped at Seymour for second breakfast and then drove on to Holbrook. Holbrook is famous for having a submarine as the centrepiece of its main park. Apparently because Holbrook is the name of a famous submariner and they kind of sponsor submarine folk. I particularly liked the torpedo across from the pub.

I had forgotten, and quite enjoyed, the rolling hills in this part of the world. They were quite green and lovely and went on forever. The sheep in NSW are quite odd. They seem to cluster together in a very friendly clumps, unlike the Victorian sheep who just loll about.

Anyway made Canberra and settled into the digs at ANU. It is right on campus and quite nice with a lovely peaceful cloister. However, less hotelly that normal places, so no Canberra maps available at reception. And no wifi......the horror!!!! We wandered about without a map and managed to find the city centre. Hardly worth it. No tourist office and no people. Just some odd sculptures and the odd wandering goth, single mother or homeless person. When people say Canberra is dead this is where they got the idea.

We drove the 3km out of town to get to a tourist centre to get a good map. Google maps wanted Marjan to drive on the wrong side of the road. She resisted! We got our maps and decided to risk some roundabouts without one.....yep ended up going the wrong way. Still; the traffic hardly makes any difficulties when getting back on track. 

Made it back to the digs and ate at the University House restaurant called....Boffins.....what wags. Not bad. By then we were buggered so spent the evening watching TV....well episodes of The Newsroom via our ipad. 

Bye for now.