My morning started out crazy as I was rushing around like a madman packing, eating breakfast, showering and running out the door to make the bus to manly where I had a rental car reserved. I’m happy to say that the bus ride went off without a hitch and I was at the rental car agency in less than an hour. After signing the form and initially in the 27 places I was told to initial (come on man….it’s 2016 and we’re still going through this antiquated process to rent a car?!?!
So after spending 5 minutes trying to figure out why my iPhone wouldn’t pair with the Bluetooth system in the car (oh the things we spend our time on nowadays :-), I left the parking lot for my journey south.
As I wrote on FB today, it’s been a few years since I’ve driven on the right side of the car and the left side of the road (Guy DeBellis I’m sure you remember our first day in Scotland…I can’t recall has our travel ban to Scotland been lifted yet :-), but it came back to me quickly. The only thing that kept getting me was I kept turning on the windshield wipers when I want to do a right/left turn signal because they’re reversed from the US (different sides of the steering column).
Anyway, I had a good drive down from Manly to Canberra and arrived around 3:30. I headed straight for the Parliament building as I knew it would be closing soon. Walking around the Australian capital building was really cool. The government was not in session so the public pretty much had free reign in the place. Going up on the “roof” was very cool. I say “roof” because it’s covered with grass on both sides and basically blends into the hillside….
As mentioned above, since the legislation was not in session I was able to walk into both the House and the Senate chambers and take pictures in both…
 |
| House of Representatives |
 |
| Senate Chambers |
It was also pretty cool to see one of the original copies of the Magna Carta at this building. A guide told us that it was purchased in the early 1950’s and brought to Australia. I’ve also seen the one in the National Archives in Washington many years ago. I believe our guide today said there are only four known copies in existence today….I’ve now seen two. 🙂
After leaving the Parliament building I drove about 15 minutes to a place called Mount Ainslie. On Mt Ainslie you can view most of the city of Canberra and get a good, birds eye view, of the geometric design/layout of the city…..
After that I drove about 20 minutes outside of town to Queanbeyan (
Google,
Wiki) where I was staying for the evening at the home of a very nice young couple. After a great dinner at a nice place called the Royal Hotel (
Google)….
I spent some time speaking with Carlie and Ricky. A few years ago they took a whole year and traveled around the world (totally cool). They’ve also both spent quite a bit of time traveling in the US. They are into the outdoors (yeah baby) and gave me some great advise for my hike tomorrow….uh, later today now (I gotta go to sleep). They’re a really nice young couple and I only wish I had more time to spend getting to know them more. Oh well, maybe next trip. 😉
 |
| Where Am I |
* Remember you can see many more pictures by clicking the “View Photos” links on the right. *
* Also remember to subscribe below to receive email updates when new posts are made *
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
