Canberra is an interesting city since it’s new and plotted out to be a government city, which really reminded me of Washington D.C because of the symmetry.  The difference was that D.C is very pedestrian friendly and tourists stroll to all the monuments and buildings without a problem. Canberra is a very car oriented city. The first thing we visited was City Hill, a large park in the middle of a roundabout with a flagpole in the centre. The thing was that there were no pedestrian crossings to City Hill, so we had to dash across the three lane roundabout. There were park benches for people to utilise but no safe way for people to get there. On another occasion to get from the parliament building to the part of the city which had restaurants we found ourselves running across 3 different highways that had no pedestrian crossing, so that was an adventure in itself.  I thought the city plan was a bit ridiculous.

Also, it was rather unkempt. The main area in front of parliament was nice but City Hill was rather untidy.  This is probably because no one could get there easily to maintain it. There was also a path along the lake which led to the National museum of Australia which reminded me of the path that leads to the Jefferson Memorial but it wasn’t pretty at all, so that aspect needs some work. The National Museum had some really nice exhibits and was very informative and it’s well worth spending a few hours there.

Us on top of Parliament. In front is the old parliament and all the way in the back is Australian War Memorial

Next we visited the parliament building which was very spectacular. It is fairly new, opening in 1988 and therefore, it’s a very modern building with some interesting architecture. I particularly liked that the lawn stretched all the way to the top of it and the roof was basically a lawn which visitors could visit. We took the tour and learned about the building and the Australian government; it’s free so it’s well worth doing.

Parliament

Next we visited the old parliament which was much less impressive and the tour was too detailed and focused on politicians which I’ve never heard of so it was geared towards Australians. I didn’t particularly enjoy the old parliament but it was clear to see why they needed a new one.

Then we popped into the National Gallery of Australia which was also a good museum and we wanted to spend more time there but since it was 5:00 it closed and we had to leave.