Canberra
Categories: holidays, family, friends, ship-of-fools, food, australia
Date: 01 August 2006 11:52:23
Photos here.
A very pleasant weekend in the Capital [and, in true Australian-shortening-form, it is pronounced Can-bra: not Can-ber-ra]. Though the nights were cool, the days were sunny and very pleasant. And it was wonderful to catch up with Singing Semele and a good number of shipmates.
The National Zoo and Aquarium was great fun: and Skye (my niece) truly loved it! I met her, and my sister and brother-in-law, there and we took a leisurely stroll around. The "fishies" and "monkeys" were greatly enjoyed by Skye -- she kept pointing and repeating their names. She was amused by the penguins and their cries, and seemed fascinated by the giraffes. She chased some kangaroos in an enclosed area, but some eventually came near here and with mum she patted them. I do love visiting zoos, and it is particularly wonderful thing to do with a kid.
After that, I went my own way and drove up Mount Ainslie for a very nice view of Canberra. I had lunch at the cafe at the National Museum of Australia and then toured the museum: wonderful permanent exhibits on the history of not only Australia since European settlement, but a great number of informative exhibits of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their history. A temporary exhibit, Cook's Pacific Encounters, is well worth the visit: if you are nearby, or will be in Canberra before September 10, I can highly recommend it. I then had a quick look through the National Gallery of Australia (I particularly enjoyed seeing the Ned Kelly series of paintings by Sidney Nolan) and the National Library, which had a very interesting temporary exhibit on Australian pianist and composer Percy Grainger.
It was then back to the motel, and a wonderfully heated room!, to shower and change before shipmeet 1: Christmas in July Mass and Dinner at St George's Anglican, Pearce. The talented choir of All Saints' Anglican, Ainslie. A wonderful service, wonderful music, beautiful liturgy and a challenging sermon. And the meal and dessert, my, the desserts, afterwards, wee delicious. It was great to meet some new shipmates, and to see ones I've met before also. Click here for photos from the night and from the shipmeet Sunday.
Shipmeets continued the following day with me visiting Melba Uniting Church, the home church of two shipmates: a beautiful and moving liturgy there -- I do like to experience how Christians of different traditions worship. We then, with a shipmate from St George's, went up to Telstra Tower on Black Mountain for a panoramic view of Canberra and surrounds. It is also clear, as someone from Sydney, that Canberra is a planned city: unlike Sydney which sprawled out and where main roads wind and twist, as they were once livestock paths. Planning is a good thing. We also went, briefly, to the outside observation deck -- before the chilly wind set us running back.
We then met more shipmates for a wonderful, and very filling, Vietnamese lunch. The filling part was to prove the most troublesome, as straight after lunch I was meeting Singing Semele and some friends of hers for Afternoon Tea at the Canberra Hyatt. The sweet and savoury selection on offer was far too tempting, though: the chocolate mousse in particular. A very civilised afternoon: and it was great to see Semele again.
Being the capital, embassies and High Commissions are well represented in Canberra: I also drove through the streets where they are all situated having a look. It is interesting how the building can reflect the country: Germany's seemed quite functional and practical (i.e. not beautiful); the Thai and Chinese ones had facades at least in the style of the buildings found there; and the New Zealanders appeared to be poking fun at themselves with representations of cows on the front lawn. I found the Papuan New Guinea one to be the most attractive.
A wonderful weekend: an absolutely wonderful weekend.