To catch you up on our adventures, Wednesday we went to lunch with Lou’s friend Margaret, a lovely woman who is interesting and entertaining. She and Christine had a lot in common, health issues, love of swimming and dance, and other things so the conversation was lively. Almost everyone we encounter eventually turns the discussion to American politics and their amazement at the craziness of the current president. To date, no one here that we’ve spoken to understands how Trump got elected nor do they understand how he can behave the way he does as president. Interestingly, Australia has mandated voting so all citizens are required to vote in elections. That’s probably a blessing and a curse due to folks voting without any knowledge of the people they are voting for. But wouldn’t it be fascinating for the U.S. to have mandated voting? At any rate, we really enjoyed our lunch with Margaret and hope to continue correspondence with her after we return home.

Wednesday evening is Lou’s choir practice. I helped him learn some of his music. He doesn’t read music so he must learn melodies and words by ear. He got out an electric keyboard that he inherited and I played the melodies for him to hear. One little problem was that some of the keys played the note when pressed and when the pressure came off the key, the note played again. That drove me crazy because it was like the keyboard had a stutter. At any rate, we had some fun and Lou did well learning some of the music.
Thursday was laundry day and preparation for our trip to Canberra and Melbourne. We also had to take Banjo to the groomers and pack up his food because Lou’s sister-in-law Marilyn will be keeping Banjo during our week away. It’s sad to be leaving Banjo, and it is especially difficult for Lou because he loves Banjo so much. It is weird being in the house without Banjo around. He’s a great little dog.
Thursday evening Alex and Gloria again took us to the club that has the fabulous buffet. We had a really nice evening with them. They again are loaning us Gloria’s car for our trip, which is so nice of them. They want us to be safe and apparently Lou’s car can be a little temperamental, so they got Gloria’s car serviced and prepped for our trip.
Friday morning we set off for Canberra. Our ultimate destination is Melbourne, but that’s too far to go in one day (about 12 hours from Bensville) so we decided to visit Canberra, the capital of Australia. I was especially interested in taking this trip because we haven’t been south of Sydney during our prior trips so this was new territory to see.

After the southern suburbs of Sydney, the countryside becomes picturesque with rolling hills, stands of trees, livestock farms and nice terrain. At some points I commented that it looked very much like our area as you travel up I-88. At one place there were even forests of conifers, the first such pine forests I had seen in Australia. Actually, the vegetation did change a bit in that the trees were less eucalypts and more hardwoods like oak and sycamore.
As we were nearing Canberra we came to what should have been Lake George. On the map the lake looks quite large, 25 miles long, 6 miles wide, but as I learned Lake George is an endorheic lake, one that does not have an outlet. It is extremely shallow and at times the lake water essentially disappears. This is caused by evaporation and wind blowing the water away. Although you saw water off in the distance, traveling along the lake for miles all I saw was a flat plain. It was weird. Off in the distance we saw lots of wind turbines along the far shore of the lake up in the hills.
Where Lake George wasn’t Wind turbines off in the distance
We arrived in Canberra and found our hotel in the suburb of Ainslie. We were surprised at its location, right in a very nice residential neighborhood. The Ibis chain in Australia is a low-cost offering and we were pleasantly surprised to find a very clean, nice room. We dumped our stuff in our rooms and took off to do some sightseeing.
The Canberra area was chosen as the location of the federal capital in the early 20th century after the confederation of the Australian colonies. Sydney and Melbourne had been fighting for decades as to where the capital would reside. A compromise was struck, one clause being that the capital had to be at least 100 miles from Sydney, and Canberra was selected as the capital. An international competition was held for the design of the new capital and in 1911, an American was chosen, Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion Mahony Griffin. Canberra is an entirely planned city. The Griffins’ plan featured geometric motifs such as circles, hexagons and triangles, and was centered on axes aligned with significant topographical landmarks in the Australian Capital Territory. The city’s design was influenced by the garden city movement and incorporates significant areas of natural vegetation. We were all impressed by the wide streets, wide medians, and abundance of parks in the residential areas.
One of the best places to see the overall layout of the city is at the top of Mt. Ainslie. From the lookout there one can see right down a straight line from the War Memorial, the Anzac Parade, across Burley Griffin Lake to the Old and New Parliament Houses to Capital Hill. Additionally, from the top of Mt. Ainslie you see a 360 degree view of the tablelands around Canberra.

View from Mt. Ainslie View from Mt. Ainslie View from Mt. Ainslie
After we got our fill of the spectacular view, we went in search of the oldest building in Canberra, St. John the Baptist Anglican Church, built between 1841-1845. It is a lovely old church and although we couldn’t go inside we wandered around the grounds and its cemetery.
St. John’s Anglican Church Very stately church Churchyard and cemetery Carved bench in the churchyard
After the church we went to the National Carillon. The carillon was a gift from the British government to the people of Australia to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the national capital, Canberra. Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the National Carillon on April 26, 1970. Unfortunately, the carillon was undergoing renovation so we couldn’t walk over the bridge to Aspen Island to see it up close, but we learned quite a bit from the information presented on the fencing. The carillon has an amazing 55 bells and in its facelift is getting 2 more. When the carillon is played it is as an organ is being played and the pedal and keyboard action swings the bells. It must be something else to hear.

Another building along the lake that I noticed was the National Museum. When I saw it I though it looked a lot like the Kennedy Performing Arts Center in Washington, D.C. along the Potomac.

I walked along the Burley Griffin Lake for a bit because I wanted to see if I could see the axis from the Mt. Ainslie Lookout to Capital Hill. I found it, but wasn’t able to get a very good picture, but it is an impressive sight.

By now, it was starting to get dark so we went off to find a place to eat. Canberra City Center is a mile of so from the Parliamentary government area and is anchored by Canberra Centre, one of the glitziest downtown shopping malls I have ever seen. We walked through it on our way to a restaurant we wanted, which we never found. The shopping center area was quite lively and we wandered around for a while trying to locate a place to eat that didn’t have music blaring. We ended up at a place called Gus’s, which turned out to be a great spot. We sat outside in a somewhat enclosed area, but one that allowed us to watch the hustle and bustle of the night crowds in Canberra. I read that Canberra is a young city having a median age of only 35, so there is a lot of nightlife going on. After dinner, us old-timers took ourselves back to the hotel for the night.
We’re looking forward to more sightseeing tomorrow. There’s a lot to see in Canberra.
Loving your blog Linda! Jane and I drove to Canberra on a day trip from Sydney. We took the coast road south and then Drove inland. It was a sparse city in 1989. I can’t imagine how much it has grown since then.
We also flew down to Melbourne for a weekend. I think the mountains there were hit hard by fires this year. Looking forward to your next report Safe travels