Leafy Capital!

The view from Parliament Building roof.
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The arrival in Canberra was a surprise one, as we had not realised that we had indeed entered a city at all!! The rows of houses and lines of trees and shrubs have the appearance of being meticulously designed and manicured to the extent that the entire city does not really extend beyond 3/4 floors high with any given building or tree. Also, once we had decended the Greyhound bus, we found we needed to board another bus in order to reach Queanbeyan - the suburb we were staying in - which was 6 miles out of the city centre! Following this, we had a 15 min walk with heavy backpacks and rucksacks up and down a weaving road to our motel in a nice quiet area, right opposite a convenient bowling alley (within which, Lorna managed to pass 100 points for the 1st time ever!! And we have the scoresheet to prove it!)

Leafy Canberra.
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On the first full day we had, we took the bus to Barton to do the 12km walking tour of the capital, which took in all the sights and sounds of Canberra. First off was the Parliament building, which looks brand spanking new, and very modern - which is free to look round (aside from a brief security check) and you can walk around the whole building, and even get onto the roof and check out the near 360 degree panoramic of the city. From here we moved on to take in the Art Gallery (better than Sydney!), the Court House, and Captain Cook Jet within Lake Burley Griffith. From one angle of the Jet, there was a perfect rainbow formed by the spray, which came and went as the wind blew. It was a very hot day, and by the time we got back to the motel, we were cream crackered!

The rainbow from Captain Cook Jet.
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The next day, we just walked round Queanbeyan - inc the local shopping mall and bowling alley. From Canberra, we moved onto Melbourne...