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View Full Version : Australian Odyssey: Canberra

Tommyboy
Oct-04-2006, 02:34 PM
My wife and I enjoyed Sydney immensely, but the time came for us to head off to Canberra, which we did by train. The purpose of our trip was to visit relatives (my uncle, aunties, and cousins) and Canberra was the first bastion of rellies.

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We had the train all to ourelves for a while, but soon more passengers boarded. It was never full, though, and we got to see a bit of the countryside. Remarkablly similar to Southern California, actually.

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We (bloody yanks) found their power outlets fascinating. 220v, yes, but also their cords seemed like something out my grandmother's iron, and all their outlets, all, were switched. They seemed terribly concerned that ours weren't.

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We did a lot of sightseeing in Canberra, Australia's capital. Here my wife and cousin Julie admire their Vietnam memorial. No shortage of war memorials in Australia. Can't drive through a town without seeing a memorial to WWI. Australia lost more soldiers in WWI, per capita, than any other nation.

The king of war memorials, however, is the Australia War Memorial. Here's a few images of this magnificent shrine.

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While in Canberra, we also took the opportunity to tour the Parliment House, a magnificent, modern structure and wonderfully designed building.

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The kangaroo and the emu are both symbols of Australia's government, as neither animal is capable of going backwards.

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The flag "floating" atop Parliment.

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The eagle atop the American war memorial in front of Australia's Ministry of Defence.

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Caught this Ibis snacking on worms for lunch.

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There were no photos allowed inside, but I did manage to capture this shadow art on the outer wall of the National Gallery.

My cousins, with whom we stayed, lived on a golf course. When we expressed an interest in seeing kangaroos, they said, "OK, we'll take a stroll on the golf coure at sunset." Here's a few of what we saw.

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Took a trip to the coast to my cousin's beach house. This is one of their beautiful beaches in the dead of their winter.

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Love this picture of my Autnie Tess and Uncle Bill. He's my mother's brother and this was my first time meeting him.

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Believe me when I tell you, in Australia, it's all about the tea.

That's it for Canberra. Thanks for reading. The rest of the pictures are here:http://www.snc1923.smugmug.com/gallery/1612697.

As always, C & C welcomed.

Next stop: Melbourne!
ESiggins
Oct-06-2006, 10:04 AM
Nice shots! How long will you be here in Melbourne? Need any tips on what to see?
Mickey57
Oct-06-2006, 12:17 PM
Great Photos:
We presently have a high school exchange student from Canberra with us,
I will show here your pictures as soon as she gets home from School. She has not had any problems so far with homesickness....this might just do it for her:wink
Thanks for sharing
Tommyboy
Oct-06-2006, 01:28 PM
Nice shots! How long will you be here in Melbourne? Need any tips on what to see?

Oh--I'm back in the states now. This trip took place last June/July.

Melbourne was one of my favorite stops (Perth being the other). Melbourne is a great city with a real verve, unusual and positive energy. I really liked it.

Hope to come back soon!
Tommyboy
Oct-06-2006, 01:28 PM
Great Photos:
We presently have a high school exchange student from Canberra with us,
I will show here your pictures as soon as she gets home from School. She has not had any problems so far with homesickness....this might just do it for her:wink
Thanks for sharing

Please point her to my website (in my sig On the Road. . .) where I have a larger number of shots including the city and family. Perhaps she'll know some. . . . Wouldn't that be a small world?
Mickey57
Oct-06-2006, 02:03 PM
Hi Tom:
Had my Canberra student look at your pictures. She enjoyed them very much and pointed out many places she has been. She even located the seat at the airport that she sat in prior to coming here. That was last January.
Thanks again for the pictures

Dan
pug8
Oct-06-2006, 09:29 PM
I had a look through your smugmug gallery, too.
What? No wide shots of Canberra, showing the lake(s), the mountains, the layout of the land.
Not that I need to see them them, but other people should.

[I don't need to see them - I was born there and know what it's like :D]
Tommyboy
Oct-07-2006, 03:53 AM
I had a look through your smugmug gallery, too.
What? No wide shots of Canberra, showing the lake(s), the mountains, the layout of the land.
Not that I need to see them them, but other people should.

[I don't need to see them - I was born there and know what it's like :D]

You're absolutley right--one glaring ommission is just that, wide shots and a photo of Lake Burley-Griffin. Just the way it worked out. . . . Unfortunate.
ed_h
Oct-10-2006, 06:20 AM
Home power magazine a US pub did an article awhile back on how people in the States can retrofit a switch to power points, the point being (no pun intended) is to turn off appliances at the newly installed switch to help eliminate phantom loads for people living off grid.
Cheers, Ed
PS Where did you stay while visiting Freo? my son has a place at the old biscuit factory redevelopment.
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Tommyboy
Oct-10-2006, 07:43 AM
G'day Ed. You know, I didn't really think about the practical application of shutting something off. . . . Every time I inquired, I was told it was a safety concern; folks were horrified that we let our toddlers near unswitched outlets.

My wife and I were lucky enough to stay with my cousin. She and her husband have an ocean front property in Waterman's Bay, about 30 minutes or so from Freo. That redevelopment they have going on is wonderful. I'll bet your son loves it down there.