Category: Australia

Our last full day with Lou in Australia was a bittersweet one. None of us can believe that nearly 7 weeks has passed, although we certainly have covered a lot of ground. For this last day, we asked for a visit to a beach for a final dip in the ocean.

We started the day by writing out some thank you cards. Everyone has been so wonderful to us. We wanted to let everyone know how much our visit with them meant to us. We then joined Lou for a visit to a cafe down the road, He typically has a morning cappuccino at the cafe, and so he’s starting to slide back in to a normal routine. While he wasn’t looking, I popped into the cafe and purchased a gift card for him so that while he’s having his morning cappuccino for a couple of weeks he’ll think of us. We, too, will picture Lou with Banjo sitting on the veranda of the cafe sipping his cappuccino.

We then went for a walk along Ettalong Beach. What a beautiful day it was! And Ettalong provides wonderful views of Brisbane Water and Broken Bay.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

After lunch, we headed to Copacabana Beach for a swim, one of our favorites.

The surf was just right, enough for jumping waves, but no crunchers. Since this beach is a no dog beach, Lou and Banjo sat on a bench at the top of the dune watching the goings on. After I had my fill of the ocean, I went up and took charge of Banjo so Lou could enjoy the water. Unfortunately, he neglected to empty his pockets before getting wet. Yep, his phone was in his pocket. I feel terrible about that accident. We tried the phone in a bag of rice trick when we got home, but to no avail. We’ll head to a phone store in the morning.

Our last night Lou wanted to take us out to dinner. His first choice was not open Tuesday, so he picked the Reef Restaurant, a lovely ocean-side upscale restaurant. It has a marvelous view and it was really nice to see twilight approaching. Our meals were very good and we had good conversation about all that we have done during our visit.

Wednesday, Feb. 26th, was departure day. We packed in the early part of the morning. None of us wanted to face leaving. Lou went to church for Ash Wednesday service. When he returned, I went with him to Woy Woy to a phone store. Mobi is a one-off storefront where we went for a new glass protector and case for Lou’s phone a couple of weeks ago. We started there since I thought the guy there knew his stuff. He had the back of Lou’s iPhone off in about 15 seconds and we all could easily tell there was no saving it. The guy tried selling Lou a used iPhone XR for $800 (regularly about $1,200). I suggested to Lou that we check out Telstra, his mobile carrier, before making any decisions. The clerk there tried to sell us an iPhone 7 for $479, but it was only 32GB. She then went to an iPhone 6, 32GB, for $459. We were going to do that, but I went back to the other place and told him the deal at Telstra. He said he could get an iPhone 6, 64GB, for $295. That’s what Lou decided to buy, but it wouldn’t be available until tomorrow. Lou without his phone is like a fish out of water. He learned the next day that it was a used iPhone 6 he bought, but I think that the $295 price is a good one even for a used phone. So Lou will be moving into his new phone over the next few days. He will be so relieved.

By the time we got back to the house, it was getting close to our departure time to the Sydney airport. I think we were all silent for about an hour as we finished packing and loading the bags and stuff into the car. Lou’s brother Ray was meeting us at a place on the way to the airport. We picked him up and proceeded to the airport. We didn’t have any surprises getting our bags checked in. After that, we found a cafe for a drink and sat and chatted with Ray and Lou (and Margaret via phone) until it was time for us to head to security.

• 

• 

• 

It was a very teary goodbye, for sure. We’ve had such a good time and Lou has been an absolute joy to be with. He really went above and beyond the call of duty taking care of us and getting us to the places that were important for us to go. Lou, we can’t thank you enough for your wonderful hospitality and love. We love you lots!

Our flight to Honolulu was uneventful, except that neither of us slept at all during the flight. I thought with a 7:30 p.m. departure and flying 10 hours overnight would cause us to sleep, but it wasn’t to be had. And we crossed the International Date Line on the way to Hawaii so we got to relive Wednesday. We arrived in Honolulu about 8:00 a.m. on the 26th (about 12 hours before we left Sydney). Of course it was too early to check into our hotel, so we sat in the Starbuck’s in the lobby until 1:00. The hotel upgraded our room to a suite, which was nice. We had an ocean view room.

• 

• 

For dinner we walked over to the Tropics Bar at the Hilton Villages Resort where we stayed on the way to Australia. It was nice to walk around a bit after the long flight, but there were some brief showers and we had to duck for cover a couple of times.

The next leg of the journey was Honolulu to San Diego. Nothing much to report for that flight, except that paying a little extra for Comfort+ seating really is worth it. A little extra space helps to be more comfortable when enduring long flights.

We arrived in San Diego at about 9:30 p.m. We stayed in the same Hampton near the airport as before, which provides shuttle service to and from the airport. It was a short stay because we were on the 5:30 a.m. shuttle back to the airport the next morning.

The flight from San Diego to Detroit was okay. The only problem was that our in-flight entertainment systems in the Comfort+ section were not working. There were many disgruntled people who, having paid extra for the Comfort+, couldn’t watch any TV or movies. Once we arrived in Detroit, it was no big surprise to me that our connecting flight to Binghamton was delayed. Flights from DTW to BGM are frequently delayed or canceled. After several stories from the gate agent as to status, we finally got on an airplane 3 hours later and arrived in Binghamton at about 7:20 p.m. Our wonderful friend Eve was there to meet us and drive us home. Our equally wonderful friends Reva and JoAnn sent a care package with Eve containing everything we needed for breakfast in the morning and homemade chicken soup for dinner. How nice to have such great friends!

So our Australia adventure has come to an end and we are back home. It was a fabulous trip and we enjoyed every part of it, especially our time with Lou. We all talked about our next get together, which I hope will be relatively soon, either Lou coming to America or us returning to Australia. Whichever way that happens, we’re looking forward to it. For now, it’s great being back at home. There wasn’t much snow on the ground and the driveway was clear, a very nice thing.

Thanks to all our family in Australia for a wonderful visit. We’re sending love, gratitude, and good wishes to you all. Hopefully we’ll be seeing you again in the not too distant future.

And thanks to you who have followed along with us by reading this blog. I appreciate your interest, and especially your comments. This blogging business does take a lot of work, so I’m happy to know that it is being read and commented on. Thanks!

Christine and I will be off on another adventure in late April, so stay tuned.

Our last excursion is to the Australian Reptile Park. It’s close by in Somersby and we’ve talked about going for the last 6 weeks. Today is the day, because we only have 2 days left before we start our return to home on Feb. 26. Lou’s friend Margaret had said she wanted to join us when we last saw her, so we picked her up for the outing on our way to the park.

I didn’t quite know what to expect, and Christine was a little leery about being too close to reptiles, but it was a fun day seeing and learning about many native reptiles, birds and mammals. We arrived just in time for a little showing of several species. The narrator talked about various reptiles and then displayed them, some he took around for us to pet if we so chose.

• 

• 

• 

• 

We bypassed the opportunity to have our photo taken with the python wrapped around us!

The koalas were adorable, of course. We saw the backsides of many that were perched in their enclosures, but a couple of them faced forwarded for us.

• 

• 

• 

The birds were amazing. Many were in cages, but a lot of birds in the wild were visiting the park. You never knew what interesting bird would swoop by or were in trees nearby as we looked at the caged birds.

• 

• 

• 

• 

We stopped for a lunch break and ate outside. Of course, we had visitors who wanted to share our lunch.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

It was amazing when these lorikeets flew in. Their wing beats really were strong and you would feel the breeze as they flew by. When there were 30 or so of them right at the end of our picnic table it got a bit scary, especially when they decided to depart all at once and wings were flapping all over the place. But what beautiful birds!

After lunch we visited the Komodo dragons. I was a tad disappointed because they were lying on their bellies so we couldn’t tell how large they were. But there were two in separate enclosures.

• 

• 

Emus and kangaroos were roaming about around the park and you could pet them.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We saw the very cute endangered Tazmanian devils. They have a breeding program for these animals at the park.

• 

• 

There were two Galapagos giant tortoises. One was very happy to pose for me.

• 

• 

We saw some animals that I had no clue existed.

• 

• 

• 

If you recall from the post about our visit to the botanic gardens in Canberra, we saw a fake Cassowary in the rainforest. Well, we saw 2 real ones at the reptile park. They are colorful and very unusual birds, the only bird with an armor plate, which looked like a big golden crown on its head.

• 

• 

The park is nicely laid out with lots of greenery around. A couple of streams and small waterfalls made it sound nice. There were some sculptures nestled in the greenery which were eye-catching.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

One of the creatures that was amazing to see was a platypus. You hear about what weird animals they are, duck beak, beaver tail, fur, suckle their young, lay eggs. And I think they are as every bit weird when you see one up close.

Here’s my favorite photo of the day.

We had a very nice day at the park and it was so nice to also have Lou’s friend Margaret be with us. She’s a very interesting person and Christine especially enjoys her.

Sadly, we’re approaching the end of our time in Australia. Initially, we thought 6-1/2 weeks was a very long time, but it has shot right by. We’ll have one last swim in the ocean Tuesday, and then we’ll pack and get ready to depart for the airport on the 26th. What a wonderful time we’ve had. Lou has been such a great host. We love him to pieces!

Saturday was a mostly stay-at-home day. Christine showed Louis a lot of the fun movies and photo albums that Google Photos puts together and then they looked at a bunch of her photos. I spent time sorting photos for the blog and catching up posts, and reading the news (ughh!).

Around mid-day we got a message from Margaret, Clare and Daniel. This was the Kandos-Rylstone Show weekend (like our county fair). They had been very busy making cakes and cupcakes for the past couple of days for entry into the cake decorating contest. Clare has been involved with cake decorating for a few years and actually makes custom-order cakes. Since Clare was involved, Margaret also got involved, and of course, Daniel has joined in. The judging was taking place Saturday morning and the message we received showed the success of the Chadwicks in cake decorating – they cleaned up with several firsts for each of their entries and a couple of seconds. Congratulations to Clare, Daniel and Margaret!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We then took a drive to a novelty shop to pick up some lollies that Clare asked for. She has a birthday this week and is having a party and wanted some special sweet treats for the party. It was a huge novelty store; I’ve never seen so much stuff for parties of all occasions. Our friends Eve and Pat would have loved the offerings in this store for all occasions.

Home again, and Christine engaged in one of her favorite activities – clipping in the garden.

Then it was off to dinner. Gloria and Alex, yet again, took us to dinner. This time we went to a lovely seafood restaurant called Woy Woy Fisherman’s Wharf. The restaurant sticks out from the wharf over a lovely channel in Brisbane Water looking across to a small island, Pelican Island. I loved watching the approaching twilight on the water and surrounding area.

It was a very enjoyable evening with Alex and Gloria and a wonderful meal.

We went back to Alex and Gloria’s house for tea and coffee. They have gone out of their way to make time for us and to treat us to many dinners. The day on their yacht was incredible early in our visit. Gloria loaning us her car for two of our journeys was most kind, making our trips very comfortable and safe. Alex showed us some photos online of two cabin cruisers that he’s interested in, a 56-footer and a 70-footer. Alex said that when he buys his new cabin cruiser they’ll take us out for a week. We assured him that we’d take him up on that offer, just let us know when he has his new boat and we’ll come.

Sunday we drove to Windsor to meet up with Margaret, Clare and Daniel. They drove from Rylstone to Windsor, a much longer drive than we had. We were so delighted to be able to spend some time with them. Our visit to Rylstone was much too short. With Clare’s birthday coming up on the 26th, we could celebrate her birthday as well as celebrate the cake decorating winners. What we didn’t know is that we’d be joining Clare’s birthday celebration with a farewell celebration. Margaret made and decorated a cake that showed both celebrations in one cake.

• 

• 

What a clever cake! And they presented us with a going away gift of a book telling the settlement history of the area in which they live. We’ll enjoy reading that.

It worked out well meeting at the Pizza Hut in Windsor. We all arrived at the same time, and although the place was crowded when we arrived, everyone cleared out soon and we had the place to ourselves for our celebration.

• 

• 

• 

After our wonderful cake (it was a shame to cut it, but it sure was good), we drove to a nearby park. Ray had salvaged some floor mats from a gym which Clare and Daniel use for arts and crafts, as well as other things. Ray also had a bicycle which was the same as Clare’s so it can be used for parts (or vice versa). Margaret had a trailer attached to her vehicle because they had delivered a goat on their way to Windsor. They also had packed a surprise for us. In addition to having Neo, the New Year’s Day goat, they had Christine and Linda. We put them on leads and had them out in the grass at the park.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

It took a while to get all the material transferred from Ray’s vehicle and packed into the trailer. It was like putting a jigsaw puzzle together to get everything in.

• 

• 

• 

• 

And all too soon it was time to say goodbye. We so appreciated Margaret giving up a day to drive all the way to Windsor to be with us for a few hours. And we especially appreciated all the effort she put in to the cake, which was genius to combine the birthday and farewell. These Chadwicks are very creative and talented people!

• 

• 

We will cherish our time with Margaret, Daniel and Clare and hope to see them again soon. Thank you all for a wonderful visit and a very nice farewell.

He’ll kill me for posting this photo, but here’s Lou tonight when we got home after six weeks chauffeuring us all over eastern Australia. Come Thursday after we’re gone he’ll need a holiday for resting and relaxing.

We had a bit of a lazy morning today. There’s always laundry to do after a trip like we took, so I did that. Lou took care of his birds and got the lawn mower out to mow down the 8-inch grass growing in his back garden. We can’t believe how much the grass has grown since the rains came. And then we drove out to Somersby where Banjo has been staying with Mike, Marilyn and their daughter Sandy Lee. They live on an 80-acre spread that is wrapped around by Brisbane Water National Park. It is quite remote and when they bought the property about 25 years ago it was a bushfire damaged property. The house had burned down and so Mike and Marilyn built a new house using fire resistant materials and no timber. It’s an amazing property with large paddocks for horses, swimming pool, tennis court, gardens, and several sheds. It’s a beautiful place.

Marilyn had prepared a nice lunch for us, unexpectedly, because Lou had left his phone in Gloria’s car when we took it back to them, so he hadn’t received Marilyn’s text about lunch. It was very nice to spend some time with Marilyn and Mike. Sandy Lee has not been feeling well and is recovering from a recent fall from a horse. She fractured the head of her humerus in the fall so she has limited movement currently. She is a special needs person. Mike, as I mentioned, has frontal-temporal syndrome and is failing, so Marilyn has her hands full caring for Sandy and Mike in addition to managing the home and property.

After lunch Marilyn drove us a short way to Somersby Falls, a very nice stair-step type falls having 3 main falls. While Fitzroy Falls was awesome in a spectacular sense, Somersby Falls was a much more intimate setting. There were a couple of overlooks, but one can walk out onto the smooth rock creek beds both at the top and bottom of each falls. Marilyn has to drive through this creek on the rock creek bed a little further up the creek to get to their property down a a narrow bush track.

• 

• 

• 

• 

We walked down to the base of the middle falls and strolled around the creek bed. The place reminded me a lot of our Salt Springs park.

• 

• 

• 

The hike down to the view of the lower falls was steep and in places, quite treacherous so Christine stayed at the middle falls while I went down to the lower falls. It was picturesque and I was fascinated by the large tree that was growing out of a crack between two rocks. It’s amazing how trees can grow in the barest of places.

• 

• 

• 

• 

I hiked back up to meet up with Christine and we wandered around the creek bed above the upper falls. There were amazing round holes in the rock, some of them perfectly round. I don’t know what would have caused this because there wasn’t a gorge or escarpment above that would have dripped water causing erosion.

• 

• 

Here’s a couple of other things we saw.

• 

• 

Marilyn arrived back from her shopping run to pick us up at the falls and she surprised us with a gift. We are now officially Aussies! It was so touching for her to have bought us hats. Thank you so very much, Marilyn. We love you.

• 

• 

After our lovely outing to Marilyn and Mike’s and to Sombersby Falls, we headed home for a quiet evening at home.

We awoke to a bright, sunny morning in Batemans Bay, which felt so nice after the last couple of rainy days we’ve had. We walked to a “brekky” place that was right below the Thai restaurant and had a lovely breakfast. We had checked out the menu last night and the Indian woman who spoke with us was very happy that we had returned. Her husband is the cook and they had the cutest little girl with whom we had a little exchange last evening. We commented to each other that it was great seeing an immigrant family succeeding in running a small business. They were very hospitable welcoming to us and I hope others coming in to their place are equally so to them.

Off we went on our final leg towards Bensville. It is going to be another long day, 492k, but hopefully a much more pleasant one.

We did encounter more bushfire damage early on in the day. It was amazing to see the difference between an area that had recently burned and one that had burned 8 weeks ago. The later sections showed lots of green while the other just showed scorched earth.

• 

• 

• 

Soon, though, we left the worst of the bushfire zone and returned to the lovely rolling green hills.

It was a relief to not have to drive through miles of devastation, but I’m really glad we saw it up close. There is great controversy here, as in the U.S. about forest management. Many people blame the “greenies” for preventing any type of controlled burning to eliminate the fuel load in the bush, however, there is a movement gaining traction for the use of Aboriginal concepts of burning to prevent these huge bushfires. All I know is that I saw the results of careful management of property at Tony’s. Yes, about 60% of his timber was burned, but the house was protected and the fire never got close enough to his buildings to threaten them. It takes a lot of work, but eliminating the fuel load is an important step in preventing fires.

Our next stop was an incredible one. Just past the city of Nowra, in a section of the Southern Highlands, we drove up to Cambewarra Lookout.

It was quite a drive to get up there, with a turnoff from the highway onto a narrow road, and then a turnoff onto an even narrower road that hugged the rock face on the left and had no rails on the right. It really was a one lane road so we prayed we wouldn’t meet a car coming down. It’s hard to imagine how the road was built in the late 1800s, but there it has been since then.

We arrived with no mishaps and I wasn’t prepared for what we saw from the Cambewarra Lookout.

The view from the edge of the lookout was spectacular!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

To get to the edge of the lookout you had to walk down a slanted downward path and then onto a grassy section of the hillside. Christine wasn’t too interested in doing that. She tentatively made her way down the path holding on to the railing and stopped behind Lou and kept a tight hold.

It was just a bit early for lunch, but morning tea sounded good. Morning or afternoon tea means a cuppa with a sweet. And wow did we ever have the most spectacular cuppa and sweet. I went into the teahouse to order scones, but they had just put a batch into the oven so they wouldn’t be ready for a while. Our second choice was carrot cake and cappuccino. Oh my!

It was the best carrot cake any of us had ever had and Lou couldn’t get over the beauty of his cappuccino. We ate every morsel of that cake with each of us wanting to lick the plate, but refraining from doing that. That left 3 roses which Christine put together on a plate. Lou said something about Rosie, Christine’s mother, Christine said, “and Rosina,” their grandmother, and I add Roselyn, my mother. So we had 3 roses.

• 

• 

What a great stop we had at Cambewarra Lookout. A phenomenal view and a fabulous morning tea. Now on through Kangaroo Valley and to Fitzroy Falls.

We drove down off the backside of the Southern Highlands into a lush, verdant valley named Kangaroo Valley. The first inhabitants of Kangaroo Valley were the Australian Aboriginal Wodi-Wodi people, who had reportedly occupied the land for around 20,000 years before the European settlement of Australia in 1788. The first recorded European sighting of the valley was in April 1812, when surveyor-explorer George Evans passed through the area as he traveled north from his exploration of Jervis Bay. Evans reportedly claimed that the valley offered a view that “no painter could beautify.” I would agree with that. It was idyllic with green pastures of grazing dairy cows nestled in a relatively narrow valley between nice hills. The little village of Kangaroo Valley had several heritage buildings, but one of the top sights in the area is Hampden Bridge.

• 

• 

Hampden Bridge is Australia’s last surviving suspension bridge of the 19th century. Not only has it enormous aesthetic appeal but it is considered very rare because the majority of the structure is original. The 28 high tensile steel cables are original and they are the only part of the bridge not sourced locally, they came from England. The underpinnings of the bridge roadway are the original timbers, but have since been supported with I-beams. This Victorian bridge was a totally unexpected structure, but certainly marked the arrival into a very beautiful valley.

Our next stop was Fitzroy Falls, another spectacular place. As we reached the end of the valley we headed into the hills again. Lou pointed out that from down below we could just see two waterfalls high on the hill. I’ll put this photo in and will ask whether you can find the two waterfalls.

Fitzroy Falls, named after a governor of NSW, is a wonderful waterfall that drops straight down from an escarpment. It has a drop of 81 meters (266 feet) making it much taller than Niagara Falls (51 meters, 167 feet). The first overlook was looking over the edge of the escarpment where the falls began its drop and out across the valley.

• 

• 

The view out across the mountains and valley was really beautiful, especially on a nice sunny day with puffy white clouds. We then walked further along to another viewing platform, which gave a wonderful view of the whole falls.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Cambewarra Lookout and Fitzroy Falls were the perfect end to a very long trip. We certainly covered a lot of ground in our 7-day trip. We were a little surprised to tally up the total mileage, 1830 km or 1,137 miles.

We saw a lot, learned a lot, enjoyed each other a lot and just had a ball. Even though some of our journey was through areas difficult to see, most of it was wonderful and beautiful. It was a very memorable time with Lou. Thank you so much, Lou, for taking us on this amazing journey.

We had breakfast in our Comfort Inn suite. Lou, who’s bedroom was downstairs, tackled the metal circular stairs to come up to the second floor where there was a full kitchen, small lounge, and the second bedroom/bathroom. These units are designed as holiday flats and so are equipped for a family to enjoy their holiday. Amazingly, the unit was quite affordable.

We packed up and headed out to our next stop, Batemans Bay, another seaside town and popular holiday destination. Our weather for today was cloudy with some rain at the start, but improving as we got closer to Batemans Bay.

Our drive started out in very overcast and rainy conditions. Initially, the countryside was really beautiful with bright green rolling hills. The recent rain has turned everything green in the pasture lands and it was beautiful.

• 

• 

• 

• 

But then we got into the bush and what a difference. The Princes Highway (A1) just opened 3 days ago after large sections of it had been closed due to the bushfires. As you can see from the map above, it goes through a lot of green areas on the map which signify National Parks or National Forests. We expected to see a lot of fire damage, but I don’t think any of us anticipated seeing what we saw. I found a map on Google of bushfires burning on January 3. Our route was right through all of those red dots in the lower right part of the map, essentially the entire 460k (285 miles).

At least 33 people have been killed – including four firefighters – and more than 11 million hectares (110,000 sq km or 27.2 million acres) of bush, forest and parks across Australia has burned. Some 3,000 homes in the states of Victoria and New South Wales were burned.

We couldn’t believe our eyes as we traveled miles and miles and miles through burned out bushland. It was horrible to see. We think we drove about 200 km seeing nothing but charred trees. We all felt dazed by what we saw. Lou commented that it looked like something he saw at the War Museum in Canberra, a large photo of war dead across a battlefield. And it did look like that but instead of bodies there were great fallen charred trees lying on the scorched earth and in the totally denuded forest.

• 

• 

• 

Although we didn’t drive down to the town of Mallacoota, this is the area that you might have seen on TV where people were going to the beach to escape the fire because there was no other way out. The Navy came to their rescue and picked up people from the beach and took them to Navy vessels off shore. The smoke was horrific and the flying embers from the raging fire ignited everything. It must have been a nightmare to go through.

After miles and miles of carnage, all of a sudden we arrived in the seaside town of Eden, and it was.

• 

• 

• 

For whatever reason, Eden was spared. You may not be able to see it, but in the middle photo above all the land across the water, including the shoreline and the mountain was burned and we could see the orange hue of burned dead leaves all across the landscape. It was so nice to find Eden intact and to not be in charred forests. We ate a great fish and chips lunch in a wharf-side cafe. It was yummy and we all enjoyed the stiff breeze and salt air walking around the wharf.

We hoped that we had seen the last of the bushfire area, but it was not to be. Very quickly we reentered the burn zone and again, mile after mile of charred trees. Even many of the highway signs were melted so we knew that the fire had to have been very hot to melt the metal signs. What is so amazing, however, is the amount of green we did see. The tree ferns showed long bright green branches coming out of their charred trunks. This looked rather like green umbrellas dotting the scorched earth.

• 

• 

What we really liked seeing is all the green sprouts coming out of the trunks of charred trunks and branches. I posted some photos of this up close in one of my Nana Glen posts about Tony and Liz’s place. But driving along the highway seeing large areas of charred trees with the new growth, Christine commented that it made it look like the trees were growing fur. I learned that these sprouts are called epicormic buds. The buds are present under the bark of some trees but held firmly in check by the hormonal influence of the trees’ crown of leave. When defoliation occurs, caused by such things as fire, they sprout. The new shoots (epicormic shoots) produce green foliage that enables the tree to survive. So we were very heartened to see so many “furry” trees, which means they will survive.

• 

• 

Two small towns that we drove through were especially hard hit, Cobargo and Mogo. It seemed that most of the houses were destroyed. In both towns, many buildings in the main business district had burned down. Coming into the town we passed many lots that only had a brick chimney sticking up and nothing else. I remembered the town of Cobargo because while at Tony and Liz’s, we watched a program produced by one of the Sydney TV stations that was called Hellfire: The Battle of Cobargo. It showed the horrific bushfire and focused on what happened to a family there. What really punched me in the gut was the fire chief being interviewed. Clearly the man was suffering and I suspect he’ll have PTSD for the rest of his life. His face and demeanor were that of a broken man. If anyone wishes to watch this hour-long, very compelling, program to live up close and personal to bushfires, you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvfKPZacui8.

We finally made it to Batemans Bay. I was very much relieved to be through the bushfire carnage. It’s overwhelming. We started looking around for a motel and we learned that many of the motels had no vacancy because they were full of either families who had lost their homes or workers who were cleaning up the tremendous amount of devastation. Fortunately, we stopped in a place that had vacancies. The manager kept stressing the “budget” nature of the rooms available because the nicer rooms were booked. That kind of scared me, but the rooms worked out well. They served our needs and were clean and comfortable. The manager also showed me where a nice Thai restaurant was two doors down. We enjoyed a pleasant meal and then went for a walk along the waterfront.

Batemans Bay is at the entrance of the Clyde River, an estuary famous for oysters. The mouth of the river that meets the ocean is very wide so it was interesting to see waves coming into the river quite a ways up river, there wasn’t a shoreline to stop the waves in the river. We saw a small rainbow and enjoyed our stroll, and at one point hundreds of squawking seabirds came swooping up the river from the sea.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We walked back to the motel and brought an end to our day. It was an emotional drive, one that has to be seen to be believed; 27 million acres burned and we saw a big slice of that.

Today we had a special day, but I’ll get to that. We checked out of our hotel and Lou and I went off to retrieve the car from the car park. That was an adventure in and of itself. We managed to find the car and then navigate the pay machine without too much difficulty, although the machine didn’t like my credit card so Lou had to use his. But then we had to figure out how to exit the parking ramp. There wasn’t one exit sign to be seen. We drove up this row and down that row and eventually found the exit. Then the next issue was navigating to the hotel, which was really only a block and a half away, but we had to make a very large circuit around several blocks in order to get positioned to head down our one way street. It took a while and poor Christine, who was waiting at the hotel with our luggage, called me to see if we were okay because it seemed to her we were gone a long time. We finally arrived, loaded up, and then faced our next challenge – driving to the Langham Hotel.

Lou had his TomTom programed and I had Google Maps on my phone. If we had followed the TomTom, we would have gone through several turns through the CBD. Google Maps showed a more direct route with just 3 turns, all to the left (a good thing in Australia), and so we managed to stay relatively calm and got to the hotel in good order. Then Lou handed the keys to the valet parking guy and in to the hotel we went. And what a hotel it is. The Langham Hotel is a luxury hotel for sure. We gawked upon entering. We had arrived more than an hour early for our date, just in case something happened on the way, so we had time to walk around and take in our surroundings. We then landed in the bar/lounge just outside the Melba Restaurant and had a cappuccino and people watched.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We were waiting for the arrival of Martin and Sandi Bonavita whom we were meeting for lunch at Melba’s Restaurant. Martin was a childhood friend of Christine’s in Malta. She got reconnected with him via Facebook. Somehow, Christine became FB friends with Martin’s older brother Roger. On Roger’s birthday, Christine noticed that someone named Martin had wished Roger a happy birthday. She wondered if Martin was the boy she had played Monopoly with and watched Rin-Tin-Tin in Italian on TV in Malta and so she contacted him via Messenger. Sure enough, it was her Martin. They chatted for hours on Messenger and Christine learned that Martin lived in Melbourne. When she told him we were coming to Australia Martin invited us to visit him in Melbourne. Another fantastic coincidence when Christine chatted with Martin was learning that Martin and Lou are cousins. Martin’s mother and Louis’s mother were sisters. Learning this, it made so much more sense how Christine and Martin were together as playmates; the Bonavitas and the Caruanas probably spent time together. Christine’s mother and Louis’s father were sister and brother so there was another connection. They all were related so they likely were together a lot, and Martin lived nearby to Christine in Malta. So another reason for us to be in Melbourne was to meet up with Martin and his wife Sandi.

• 

• 

The lunch buffet at Melba’s was world class, an unbelievable array of food, including a seafood bar with everything from the sea you could imagine. Just that alone would have been all anyone could have wanted. But no, there was an antipasto table, a cheese and nuts table, a salad bar, and Indian, Asian and roasted meat tables. We all went back many times to sample all the fantastic food. And did I mention the desserts? Oh my goodness! Actually, what I liked about the dessert display is that each selection was just a small bite so that you could sample several without feeling guilty for taking too much. My favorite was a little mini fruit tart. At any rate, Martin treated us all to this wonderful buffet lunch at Melba’s which was so kind of him to do.

Everyone enjoyed catching up with one another. Sandi has been recovering from a very long hospitalization but seems to be doing fairly well. She has the very rare Li-Fraumeni syndrome, which is a a TP-53 gene mutation that that makes it difficult for her system to suppress the growth of cancer cells. She has been struggling with this syndrome and several bouts of cancer for 20 years. We all pray that her recovery will continue. Martin owns a very large high tech laser metal cutting and folding business. He’s still working but is beginning to slow down. He and Sandi love to travel and he hopes that Sandi will be able to do more traveling soon. They are a nice couple and seem fun-loving and compatible. What a nice reunion for Christine and for Lou who hasn’t seen his cousin in a long time.

After lunch, we followed Martin and Sandi to get on the highway. Lou was really happy to have an escort. We were off to a place called Lakes Entrance about 4 hours away on the coast. Lou wanted to take us up the Princes Highway along the coast on our return to Bensville. We had a very challenging drive as it was pouring rain and the traffic out of Melbourne was very heavy. We eventually got to clearer roads, but the weather was awful, very heavy rain most of the way. At one point the lightening was tremendous and I kept jumping every time I saw a lightening bolt. Lou did yeoman’s work getting us safely to Lakes Entrance.

Lakes Entrance is a holiday destination in the state of Victoria and it boasts Australia’s largest network of inland waterways.

• 

• 

Lou thought that there would be lots of available accommodations because the summer holidays were over. Christine had identified a couple of possible places before hand, but when we drove by them, both were closed for the season. We drove around for a while, saw several No Vacancy signs, but then saw a Comfort Inn and stopped in. They had a 2-bedroom suit available, which we happily took. We were all tired and ready to be off the road. Just as we were getting into our rooms, a nice rainbow appeared which we took as a good omen.

We weren’t too interested in shopping around for a place to eat, so we stopped in at a KFC and had a light dinner sitting out on the shop’s veranda and enjoyed the evening close to the water. It was nice to be out of the car and in the sea air. After dinner Christine and I walked back to the motel while Lou drove back. We were glad for the opportunity to stretch our legs.

Today was a really interesting day with lots of happenings. We enjoyed tremendously our time in Melbourne and made good memories with Robert and Ed and then Martin and Sandi. Tomorrow it’s on to Batemans Bay, another holiday destination.

We started the day all still reveling in our wonderful time with Robert and Ed. I’m sure we’ll be talking about that experience for a long time. But today is focused on being tourists in Melbourne and trying to see some of the highlights of this wonderful city.

Our first decision was how to get to Federation Square where we wanted to start. We took the easy way and hailed a cab. The rush hour traffic through the CBD was made all the more difficult by several street closures causing rerouting and delays. Lou was very happy to be not driving. The other thing that causes driver angst in the CBD is the electric trams running up and down the middle of the streets. One has to be very cautious especially when executing a turn, especially hook turns where drivers move left out of the way of the tram and then essentially do a U-turn to the right. But we made it to Fed Square in one piece. Before touring Fed Square we crossed the street to visit St. Paul’s Cathedral (Anglican). The present church, a wonderful Gothic Revival structure designed by William Butterfield, was completed in 1891. Butterfield’s design was built without the spires; they were added later in the 1920s. The cathedral is the seat of the Diocese of Melbourne so the archbishop presides here.

The interior stonework is a mixture of sandstone and limestone, with contrasting stripes of Victorian bluestone, giving the cathedral a warm coloring. I found the contrasting colors quite interesting. But what I really loved was the ceramic tile on the floors and walls. Encaustic tiles were used which are ceramic tiles in which the pattern or figure on the surface is not a product of the glaze but of different colors of clay. The patterns were intricate and seeing the tiles all down the center aisle was really impressive. The reredos, the screen behind the altar, is made from Devonshire marble, alabaster and glittering Venetian glass mosaics. The cathedral’s pipe organ was built by T. C. Lewis and Co. of Brixton, England. Over six and half thousand pounds were spent on its construction, shipping and installation before it was played at the cathedral’s inaugural service in 1891. Various modifications and maintenance works have been carried out since then, culminating in an A$726,000 restoration which was completed in 1990 with the help of a National Trust appeal. In its restored state the organ has four manuals and pedals with 53 stops, all with electro-pneumatic action. Building the cathedral at its current location was intentional. It sits directly across from the Flinders Street Station, a transportation hub that was the busiest station in Melbourne in the late 1800s, so everyone entering and departing the station saw the cathedral and parishioners could come from all across Melbourne.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We then crossed the street to Federation Square which is a venue for arts, culture and public events on the edge of the CBD. It is a square of about 8 acres and all around the square are major cultural institutions such as the Ian Potter Centre, Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) and the Koorie Heritage Trust as well as cafes and bars in a series of buildings centered around a large paved square, and a glass walled atrium. With the Victorian Flinders Street Station and the Gothic Revival cathedral also in the view, Fed Square is a real mish-mash of architecture.

We wandered around the square getting our bearings.

• 

• 

• 

We first visited the Koorie Heritage Trust. Koorie is a demonym for Aboriginal Australians from the approximate region of New South Wales and Victoria. While I was excited to see Aboriginal artwork, the Koorie Heritage Trust is more of an educational and research center. While it does have some displays of art and craftwork, it is more library and conference center. We did watch 3 animated stories, dream stories about how things became to be like rivers, which were interesting. Aboriginal culture is passed down mostly through oral tradition so these stories are very important.

We then went to the Ian Potter Centre which is an art gallery that houses the Australian part of the art collection of the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). We wandered through exhibits by Roger Kemp and Petrina Hicks (she had really weird photos of very bleached people with animals, birds or snakes on them. Christine was interested to see the photographs of Polixeni Papapetrou who photographed her children in various costumes. In one series she had her children wear grotesque masks which were really surreal. That whole exhibit was both fascinating and disturbing to me.

• 

• 

• 

We then found the indigenous peoples art exhibit. There were some really interesting pieces on display. We also watched a video of Aboriginal women rapping a very powerfully worded song about their history and what now is happening in this world. We walked through the exhibit and I was very intrigued to read the story of the paintings displayed. All of them tell a story. Here is an example.

• 

• 

Here are a couple of other pieces. I laughed when I saw the emu throwing up the letters U, S, A.

• 

• 

• 

By now, we had been doing the museum shuffle for quite a while so we headed down to the square to find a place for lunch. We landed in a pub overlooking the Yarra River and enjoyed a nice lunch. As I was sitting there I noticed tickets booths for Yarra River Cruises and I thought that would be a nice way to see some of the city and hear about various things and not have to keep Lou walking with his painful bum knee. Besides, for Christine a boat ride is a must any time one is available.

While we were waiting for the cruise, we walked across the bridge to Alexandra Gardens for a brief stroll.

• 

• 

• 

• 

We got on our tour boat and headed upriver first. Along the way we saw where the Australian Open is played, the 1956 Olympic stadiums, a very new state of the art stadium, and many other sights.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We returned to the starting point and then went on the second half of the cruise downriver toward the Port of Melbourne.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We enjoyed our boat tour and learned a lot in the process. Afterwards, we strolled along the riverfront for a bit and checked out places to eat. As we were crossing one of the bridges we were inundated with people going the opposite direction leaving the CBD from their jobs to get to the Flinders Street Station. It was a mass exodus for sure at the quitting time of 5:00 p.m. with a big long queue to get into the station.

We found a food court and had dinner. We studied the tram map to figure out a way to get back to the hotel but none of the lines and transfer stops were convenient to the hotel so we again decided to take a cab. I suggested we check out where we would be meeting our tomorrow’s date at the Langham Hotel and then get a cab from there, easier than flagging down on the street I thought. We found the hotel and Lou asked about their parking process for our lunch tomorrow. Lou was thrilled to learn about the valet parking, just drive up and get out of the car for only $20 since we would be eating there. We will be leaving to start our return home tomorrow and so we will be all packed up with the car ready to depart after our lunch date. That does mean Lou will have to drive from our hotel to the Langham Hotel in the morning, but I know we can do it without too much trouble.

Via cab, we got back to the hotel in short order. We were all tired, but very satisfied with the day we had touring around Melbourne. We agreed that we had done just enough to feel we had seen some of the major sights and learned about Melbourne, with the boat tour being the best part of that.

We left Canberra early-ish Sunday morning. We were facing an estimated 7 hour drive to Melbourne and we had a date with a friend of Eve’s who we were meeting at 5:00. More about that a little later. After the day of rain every 2 hours yesterday we were really pleased to find a very fine day ahead of us. This was unexpected because the forecast had not been in our favor.

The drive to Melbourne was really nice. The countryside was lovely and the sunshine and white puffy clouds only added to the beauty. Between Canberra and Melbourne, a distance of about 400 miles, was rolling hills and livestock grazing country. It is also an area full of vineyards. The word Lou used to describe the countryside was undulating, an apt description. And never far away to the west were the mountains of the Great Dividing Range which runs nearly the entire length of the country from north to south. The Blue Mountains, which we traversed when we went to Margaret’s in Rylstone, is one section of the Great Dividing Range.

• 

• 

• 

One of the things that fascinates me is the Aboriginal language from which so many place names originate. As we drove along we saw many of these place names – Gobarralong, Gundagai, Wantabadgery, Jugion, Billibong, Wantagong, Tumbarumba. Of course all of these names have meaning, but I couldn’t tell you what. Even trying to say some of them is a challenge. It was fun, though, watching for the next sign and interesting place name.

Melbourne is the capital city of the state of Victoria and is the second most populous city in Australia after Sydney. The current population is about 5 million, but the city is growing so fast that within a couple of years it will surpass the population of Sydney. Melbourne is the more important arts, fashion, and cultural center of Australia, while Sydney is more the financial and business center, and apparently there is a great rivalry between them.

I was surprised that suburbia didn’t really start until about 20 minutes north of the city and then before we knew it we were in the central business district (CBD). Lou, not a fan of driving in big cities, did a good job of finding our CBD hotel, another Ibis hotel. Thank goodness for his TomTom, a GPS system, that helped with the navigation. I had Google maps open on my phone as well and we were able to find the hotel without a hitch. The only concerning thing was we arrived a bit later than we expected and so we were anxious about getting to our meetup location on time. We parked the car down the street and around the corner from the hotel and made the decision to use taxis or public transportation for getting around so Lou didn’t have to deal with urban traffic. We arrived about 30 minutes late for our date, but we had called Robert to let him know.

Our date was with Robert Lee Davis, a friend of Eve’s who met Robert while they were both teaching in London at the American School in London. Eve and Robert became very good friends. When Christine and I were visiting Eve in London we had briefly met Robert. When Eve heard that we were coming to Melbourne, she encouraged us to visit Robert in Melbourne and helped us set up a communication loop with Robert to organize that.

Taking from Robert’s website, it says “Robert Lee Davis is an international mixed media artist, who works in oil, found objects, acrylic paint, pen and ink, pencil and collage. As a painter, Robert creates cinematic paintings reminiscent of early colonial coastal cartographic surveys but with minuscule precision. Working across painting and collage he combines formal techniques with newsprint and images from journals and magazines. His work was always influenced by the stories and conversations he encountered and the experiences he had during his travels across the continents.” To learn more about Robert and see some of his work, please check out http://robertleedavis.org.uk/.

Robert’s studio is in the Gasworks Art Park. The buildings used to house the South Melbourne Gas plant and the area has quite a history. The Gasworks Art Park is now an artistic and cultural hub in the city providing studios, galleries, theaters and all sorts of opportunities for artists or all walks. It is a wonderful environment.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Robert met us and walked us to his studio, which he shares with 2 other artists. I warned him that Eve would want to see lots of photos of our visit, and he understood and kindly obliged.

• 

• 

Based in Melbourne, Robert has worked as an artist and arts educator in China, Egypt, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States and has exhibited his international works in China and Australia. We spent some time in his studio talking with Robert about his work. He explained a little about his creative process and how he intertwines various media in his work. Here’s a quote from an interview Robert did that describes his process. ” I am drawn to make art from objects, stories, statements, news articles and objects I encounter. I am interested in the beauty and hidden story in objects we discard and pass by – a piece of fluff blowing on the pavement and a discarded children’s drawing became the inspiration for the series: “Urban Dream;” “Differences are Lost” sprung out of a quote from the book: “Invisible Cities” by Italio Calvino; or a conversation with a friend about their life, travel and adventures lead to the creation of the “Life Landscape Series.” I hope I express the importance of small encounters.” One can see exactly that in his work and we were very moved by him talking about some of his pieces on display in his studio.

• 

• 

• 

It was so interesting seeing his studio. It is rather small but seeing where he creates and what he uses to create his works was fabulous.

• 

• 

• 

We spent about an hour at Robert’s studio and then we walked across the park behind the Gasworks and strolled through a wonderful old neighborhood where the gasworks employees once lived in small cottages lining the street. The cottages had wonderful ironwork and lovely front gardens, most lovingly kept up.

• 

• 

• 

We got in a cab to head to dinner. We were meeting Robert’s partner Ed at the Hotel Esplanade, a very iconic Melbourne pub first built in 1878. It is in the bayside suburb of St. Kilda. The Espy, as it is called, remains one of the earliest, largest and most prominent 19th-century resort hotels in Victoria. The Esplanade Hotel provided rooms overlooking Port Phillip Bay, at a time when St Kilda was both a suburb of the wealthy, and the preferred place to partake of the waters in one of the many sea-bath establishments for both Melburnians and visitors. There were many famous visitors to the Espey including Mark Twain and Sarah Bernhardt. The Esplanade Hotel is also reputed to be the longest continuously running live music venue in Australia and bands and groups continue to perform in the Gershwin Room. The Espy currently houses two restaurants and a couple of different pubs and dance floors. It clearly is a very popular place and it is very loud. Fortunately, we dined in the Espy Kitchen well away from the noisy crowds.

• 

• 

We had a lovely dinner with Robert and Ed. Ed and Lou got on very well as they are both boat lovers and so they talked about boats. Christine and I conversed mostly with Robert sharing stories (Eve, we talked about you!) and getting to know each other better. And, not surprisingly, the table conversation eventually turned to American politics. Ed was very well versed in what’s going on in America and we talked about all that for a while.

After dinner, Ed and Robert arranged for us to see some of the rest of the building. The building has been through several owners in the past couple of decades and has undergone recent renovation. But the interesting thing was about Alfred Felton who lived at the Espy from 1892 to 1904. Felton was an Australian businessman, entrepreneur, art collector and philanthropist. Upon his death, Felton bequeathed half his estate to women’s and children’s charities (very progressive for the time) and half to the National Gallery of Victoria, and a considerable fortune it was enabling the NGV to purchase over 15,000 works of art. He was apparently rather eccentric and is known for throwing wild parties at the Espy. We saw some of the private areas where Felton lived and learned about Felton and his life from Ed and Robert. His whole living space was chockablock full of books and artwork as we saw from old photos at the Espy. The whole place was quite amazing.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

After our tour of the Espy, we walked across the street to the promenade by the bay. We strolled a bit and then headed to a tram stop. Robert and Ed were putting us on the tram back to our hotel. We had a fantastic time with Robert at his studio and then with Ed. at the Espy. They are wonderful guys and we enjoyed getting to know them. It was so gracious of Robert to spend so much time with us at his studio and talking about his work. I hope we meet up again. Thanks to Robert and Ed for a very memorable evening.

Our tram ride home was a little dicey. I had the CityMapper app going on my phone but I didn’t know which number tram we had gotten on. It was dark so we couldn’t see the street or tram stop signs. We eventually figured out where we were and came to the stop I thought was where we wanted to be. Unfortunately, I didn’t figure right and we wound up having to walk several blocks, mostly uphill. That’s not a good thing for Lou who is suffering from an arthritic knee and it pains him to walk for long distances, especially uphill. I felt badly that we had to do that, but we eventually arrived back at our hotel.

What a day! But how wonderful to have spent time with Robert. We’re just sorry that Eve wasn’t with us because I know she would have enjoyed it as much as we did. Eve, you need to come to Australia.

We really liked Canberra, Australia’s capital city. The population is about 500,000. As the seat of the government of Australia, Canberra is home to many important institutions of the federal government, national monuments and museums. This includes Parliament House, the official residence of the monarch’s representative (Australia is part of the British Commonwealth) the Governor-General, the High Court and numerous government departments and agencies. It is also the location of many social and cultural institutions of national significance such as the Australian War Memorial, the Australian National University, the Royal Australian Mint, the National Gallery, the National Museum and the National Library. It also hosts the majority of foreign embassies in Australia as well as regional headquarters of many international organizations, not-for-profit groups, lobbying groups and professional associations. So, it is very much like Washington, D.C. only a lot smaller. The entire population of Australia is only 25 million as compared to our 327 million even though the countries are roughly equal in size.

Our first stop today was to visit the Australian War Memorial. In addition to the Memorial itself, it has an extensive national military museum that presents exhibits and displays of all the wars and conflicts Aussie have undergone.

• 

• 

We actually took a guided tour, which was delivered by a very knowledgeable fellow, and walked through the first and second World Wars. I learned a lot, but it was way too much information to soak up in 90 minutes. The museum is huge and the memorabilia is displayed everywhere; again, too much to take in all at once. Our guide wanted to connect with us Americans and so he ensured we knew what good allies the Aussies are. And not surprisingly, Trump came up. I am just amazed by how much American political news is broadcast here.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

On the grounds of the museum is an interesting sculpture garden focusing on key military themes.

• 

• 

• 

The Memorial Hall is a very solemn area and within it under the huge dome is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Inside the Hall is inscribed the names of the 102,185 Australian servicemen and women killed in conflict or on peacekeeping operations. Outside the Hall of Memory is a commemorative courtyard naming all of the wars and conflicts in which Aussie have fought.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I think, though, the most poignant display to me was in a long hallway in the museum that had 41 piles of 3 folded white towels with red poppies on the top, one for each Aussie killed in Afghanistan. It brought tears to my eyes because the only reason Australians fought in Afghanistan was to support their American allies. The photo below shows a reflection of each pile, which I think even adds more poignancy.

The War Memorial was quite overwhelming so we changed our pace and headed to the Australian Botanic Gardens. It was time for lunch so we had a nice meal at the Pollen Cafe at the gardens.

• 

• 

We strolled through part of the main garden loop which took us through the rainforest. I liked being in the bush again. The weather was fickle all day so every couple of hours it rained, especially later in the day when a couple of storms blew through, but while we were at the garden it was luckily not raining until the very end.

• 

• 

• 

• 

After the gardens it was off to Parliament House. As you look down ANZAC Parade to Capital Hill, you see first the Old Parliament House and then new Parliament House, completed in 1988. This is similar to our U.S. Capital because it is the seat of government. In this building are the chambers of the House of Representatives (150 representatives and Senate (76 Senators) and the offices of the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader; and of course offices for all the representatives and senators. It is a magnificent building. And what blew me away was that after passing through a rather cursory screening and metal detector, we could go anywhere in the building with few exceptions. Everything in the building is unique and of incredibly high quality. We watched a movie about the building of the structure and all the workmanship that it entailed. It was really awesome. We wandered around a long time enjoying seeing the what we learned about from the movie.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Please take note of this sign outside the Senate chamber.

After visiting the new Parliament House we drove around the Old Parliament House.

To the left of this building there was a lovely little rose garden, but as you can see from the sky in this photo, we didn’t have much time to wander before the rain came.

One of the very noticeable sights in Canberra is at the top of Black Hill. It is the Telstra Tower. Telstra is the largest telecommunications company in Australia. The tower offers observation decks and once had a revolving restaurant, which has since closed. The tower is an imposing sight from anywhere in Canberra. We did not go into the tower, but I got a picture from online of what the view looks like. It shows how large Burley Griffin Lake is.

After our drive back down Black Mountain we stopped by the National Museum of Australia, but it was closing time so we were unable to go in. The museum preserves and interprets Australia’s social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. I would put this museum on my list of things to do if coming back to Canberra. It looked very interesting and the architecture of the building was cool and playful. The museum preserves and interprets Australia’s social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation.

• 

• 

We ended our day by finding a very nice Thai restaurant in a shopping center near our motel. We were surprised to see that of the approximate 25 restaurants in the shopping center, nearly all were Asian food. Clearly there is a very large Asian population in Canberra. I think I read that 28% of the population speaks a second language with many of those people speaking Mandarin and other Asian languages. At any rate, we had a wonderful meal in a very lovely setting.

It was a very full day! We all liked Canberra very much. In the morning it’s on to Melbourne.