Sunday, November 15th
I do remember the good breakfasts here at this hotel. We were up fairly early to head over the restaurant which is only a short walk for us from our suite through the main lobby. We nabbed a table near the window and helped ourselves to the cooked meal including tater tots! Mel brought a small plate full of fresh fruit: Watermelon, melon and cantaloupe. The hotel is not very busy and, as expected for a weekend, not a lot of business people around. I remember last year, of course, there were many around and I was one of them…
Last year I very much enjoyed my trip to the Australian Mint here in Canberra. It is not very big but I found it very interesting and, as I am a bit of a coin collector, I suggested to Mel a repeat visit. I was sure she would find something of interest anyway.
Leaving the hotel we drove past the “Anzac War Memorial”. On my last visit I had noticed the term “Anzac” being used everywhere but I finally found out what it is referring to: Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.
The war memorial is an impressive sight at the top of a small hill with “Anzac Parade”, the large divided road leading from it, lined with memorials on either side leading down to the lake in the middle of Canberra - “Lake Burley Griffin”.
We followed the directions of the satnav as it took us towards the parliament buildings then along the road around it.
The “Royal Australian Mint” (http://www.ramint.gov.au/) is a fairly boring looking small rectangular building but it does have a good visitor experience with café, viewing areas, video introduction, shop and museum. Being a Sunday, unfortunately, the mint was not actually operating nor were they offering any tours so we showed ourselves around.
Entering the building there are a few exhibits on the left along with the main employee entrance into the mint. On the right there the café then beyond is the shop. In the middle is a staircase with coins visible in the steps leading up the exhibits, video room, museum and viewing areas.
We climbed the stairs and stopped for a few minutes to listen to the video but I, of course, saw it last year and I did not want to bore Mel so we left after a few minutes. The museum had slightly changed it’s exhibits so we had a look there for a few minutes before getting to the viewing area. This is a small hallway with windows on either sides looking out into the production areas of the mint. One room is where they repair and build the presses and other equipment used here, another is where workers individually press the special coin collector’s sets of coins (uncirculated and, of interest to me, the “proof” sets - which are struck several times for a brilliant finish and great clarity), and another room where the main presses are housed with a large robot that, when the mint is operating, dumps coins blanks and coins in and out of large metal barrels.
It was a shame not to see that working but I did find one of the computer guides and brought up a video to show Mel. I was surprised to see how interested she did seem to be in things, taking a close look at some of the more interesting coins on display such as the medals from the Sydney Olympics in 2000 (we learned that the bronze medal was made of melted down 1 and 2 cent pieces).
Of course I was interested in purchasing some coins so we returned down the steps to the shop. Mel minted her own coin using the machine provided though she noticed afterwards that she had put it in backwards in its package…I purchased a few mint sets then we sat down in the café for some drinks.
Being Sunday it was very quiet so we drove down to the lake and parked the car to go for a walk. There is lots of open space in Canberra so walking is certainly something you can do a lot of.
We were just enjoying ourselves, it was a nice day so we walked around the lake, over the bridge towards the parliament buildings, past the library and old government house.
I was actually hoping that the library was the art gallery but it turns out, after consulting Google Maps, that was further away and we could not be bothered to walk over to it instead deciding to visit the parliament house.
As we walked along the road we noticed some very pretty birds and, once again, Mel stalked a few to get their picture. One small group was of these grey birds with pink heads that looked to me a lot like parrots.
We found the gum trees with their pale trunks and strips of bark hanging down fascinating - Like something out of a film.
While Mel was taking pictures I crossed the street to have a look at the rather plain old parliament house. I passed through a gate to take a few pictures but found nothing of interest and quickly rejoined Mel and her birds.
We walked through the wide open park lined with flag poles leading up to the new parliament house on top of the hill or, rather, built into the side of a hill. Evidently before the building was built in 1981 there was a lot of concern over the fact they were taking a beloved local landmark, “Capital Hill”, and destroying it by putting a building on it. I think now the place is looked at with a certain amount of pride.
“Parliament House” is the home of the Australian government. It is literally built into the hill that was previously there complete with grass lawns leading up onto the roof. The Australian flag flies proudly from a massive four-legged flag pole on the roof.
Approaching the building we stopped for a few minutes to admire an unassuming fountain in front with a mosaic based on native art in the middle.
We were pleased to see the building was open so we passed through security and arranged to join a tour. The main foyer is lined with marble on the floor, walls and pillars supporting the roof - It reminded us of a train station particularly with the large marble staircases leading up to the first floor on either side.
We were asked to meet our guide in front of a painting on the first floor. It turns out that the fairly abstract painting of a forest we were standing in front of was actually used as the basis for a massive tapestry hanging in a large meeting hall just behind it.
The tour guide showed us a small exhibit containing a copy of the Magna Carta then into both of the houses of parliament - The commons and the senate. Both are quite modern looking with lots of wood. They feel quite light and airy with the design, we were told, intended to let in as much natural light as possible having large windows in the ceiling.
An interesting titbit we were told was that for the design of the red senate chamber they wanted to change the colour of the lit exit signs to also be in red but this actually required a change in the law to allow it…
After the tour we watched a video talking about the construction of the building then we took the elevator up onto the roof. I have never done this before and the view is quite nice. It is a large open area below the flag covered with grass and concrete.
It was a bit windy. Mel had a bit of a lay down on the grass for a few minutes as we took a bit of a breather.
Despite the building looking like it is buried under the hill it is actually very much open to the sky with many courtyards throughout the sprawling complex and lots of gardens as well.
We had a quick drink and snack in the café before leaving.
Having heard more about in on the tour, we stopped briefly to have a closer look at the mosaic out front - Evidently it is based on a piece of work by an aboriginal artist who supervised it being converted into the large mosaic here.
Though you can't see it from a distance, there is actually a very large motorway that runs all around “Capitol Hill” but it is recessed into the hill itself. It is the road we followed to the mint earlier.
Walking along the road back to the car, the trees fascinated us - One particular variety had these large branches growing out from the trunk almost horizontally and only a few feet from the ground - Mel had to have me take a picture of her sitting on one.
Last year I had been quite impressed with a posh pizza restaurant I had visited so we decided to give it another go. Finding places to eat in Canberra can be a bit of a trick as they are only in certain areas of the city. As this is a planned city everything was zoned out very carefully meaning that restaurants could only be in certain places. I think now the zones are a bit more flexible but nonetheless it leads to an odd looking and difficult to navigate city (the large circular road formations are particularly unusual).
Parking can be a bit of a pain but I managed to find a place on the street only to return to it after we ordered the pizza to move it to another place that was actually legal…Anyway, a few minutes later we had our pizza then we dropped by the local 7-11 for slurpees and returned to the hotel to eat and relax.
“Star Wars” was on television (the “altered” version for the geeks that are reading this) so we watched that while eating. I spent a bit of time later on the balcony as I was determined to see the southern cross star constellation - Having been here three times now I have still never seen it! I downloaded an app on my phone that allows you to hold up the phone to show you the constellations in the sky on the screen as you move the phone around. I figured out that the southern cross was actually not visible from the balcony as it was on the horizon. I couldn't see the horizon for the hotel all around me.
The cherry pie from the Robertson Pie Shop was delicious.