Today we planned to go to the War Memorial since it’s a must do for tourists and since it only opened at 10 we stopped by the Australian American Memorial which was erected to express the thanks of the Australian people to the United States of America for its contribution to the defense of Australia. Since I am American I figured this memorial must be for me, and therefore, felt obligated to visit it, but I think the Australians could have thanked us with a better memorial. Not to be ungrateful or anything but it seemed like a copy of the Washington Memorial, but you couldn’t even go inside.

The Australian American Memorial

The War Memorial is actually a War Museum as well which is absolutely HUGE. Hendrik’s into war so he wanted to take the tour of the museum and it was 2.5 hours long and we maybe got through half of the museum. I couldn’t pay attention for that long. It was interesting at first but there was a very limited amount of facts that my brain could take in a day. I was completely worn out by the time Hendrik was ready to leave the Monument. It’s definitely worth a visit but I think you have to be interested in war to really appreciate it.

War Memorial

Before we left Canberra we decided to have an Arial view of the city. So we drove to the lookout tower that overlooks the city. It was a spectacular sight because we could see just how small Canberra really was. It was a spec amongst a whole lot of nothing, and the nothingness went on forever.

It was a great city to visit and I would have liked to stay there a few days more since there were many museums, but I could see why people wouldn’t want to live there, because there wasn’t that much to do, otherwise. Now we had to drive to Melbourne because in 2 days we had to return the bus. Not far out of Canberra, we happened to see what is probably the most spectacular historical monument and tourist attraction in Australia “The Dog on the Tuckerbox.” I’d never heard of it but at least a page is written about it on Wikipedia, so it must be important.

Dog on a Tuckerbox

That night we pulled into a rest area to sleep, which was nice because at night it was pitch black and the stars were the clearest and most distinct than we had yet seen them on our trip. We tried to take pictures but our cameras weren’t well qualified for taking night pictures.

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.

Since I really wanted to see the blowhole in action we drove back to the blowhole in the morning but it was equally pathetic as the day before. So we headed off and drove to the Illawarra tree top walk. It is a new skywalk in the temperate rainforest of the Southern Highlands. The road which led to it warned that no vehicle over 10 meters should drive on the road. We didn’t know how long we were but I “measured” it with our electrical chord and decided that we were only 9 meters long. We decided it’s a go and Hendrik drove up the mountain as the path got narrower and narrower. At the most sharp, steep bend we had a car behind us and one going the other way towards us so I just held my breath and prayed that we wouldn’t stall because the engine was making gurgling sounds as if it was going to crap out at any second. I don’t know how the engine managed to pull up through the bend, but it did. That was the hardest part of the road and we made it to the treetop walk.

View from the treetop walk

The treetop walk was new and the tracks from the construction of the structure were still very visible so we thought it was pretty ironic that they had signs everywhere saying how they preserve the nature considering they had to rip the nature out. It was nice but it wasn’t worth the money they charged.

We planed to get to Canberra today and had to continue driving. On the way we drove through Gouldburn and saw the big merino which is a type of sheep regarded as having the finest and softest wool. Personally, I thought this was the most impressive big thing we had seen.

big merino

The scenery on the way was beautiful and at one point we drove along this huge valley with sheep and cows grazing in it. We pulled over at the lookout and a sign said it was Lake George. I thought it was funny to see sheep grazing on a lake but apparently it empties and fills on a cyclical basis. It was a very impressive sight, probably more so than it if was filled with water.

Lake George

We found a campsite near Canberra but did not go into the city because it was already evening so we just had a relaxing night.