Canberra

Well, here we are in the National Capital of Australia staying with our friend Tony this time, another of Doug’s Aussie buds from the Tour du Canada. Like Terry and Kathleen in Melbourne, he is going all out to feed and entertain us while we are here. Sadly, friend Virginia is off and about working in Viet Nam, Thailand, India and Sri Lanka (poor thing!) while we visit.

Canberra is built around a huge artificial lake with the new Parliament built on a hill overlooking it. We visited and were impressed with the beautiful architecture and views. Tony works for the Canadian High Commission so we of course wrote our names in the book and took a tour.

Like Ottawa, galleries and museums abound! We have visited the National Library, National Museum, National Gallery and the new National Portrait Gallery, and the War Memorial and Museum, all worth hours of inspection. We have also been to daughter Sally’s place for dinner where we had “prawns (not shrimp) on the barbie” (finally!) and to the local stadium to watch the Brumbies rugby team take on, and unfortunately lose to, the Western Force from Perth.

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In addition to being fanatic sports fans, Australians are a coffee drinking nation; a pleasant pastime here is sitting at one of the many cafes overlooking the water.

Like Ottawa, Canberra has a great network of bike paths and a lot of our time has been spent on bikes. Tony’s friend Bridget loaned a town bike to Pat, and Doug has been tootling around on Tony’s second Bike-Friday (the kind you can take apart). An early morning ride here is quite pleasant as was one with friends around the lake and up the river. By noon, though, the sun is quite hot and one afternoon Pat felt sure she was on the road to heat stroke – see the post-ride “recovery” picture for your enjoyment.

Canberra sits in a valley half way between Melbourne and Sydney, a decision around 1900 to appease both cities. What someone once described as a “waste of a really nice sheep station” is really quite an interesting city.