Canberra Day 2

Today Allan and I went out separate ways for adventures of our own. While we was climbing Mount Kosciuszko, I went on a major sightseeing journey through Canberra.

My day started by meeting Penny at the National Capital Exhibition. This building has different exhibits detailing how Canberra became the capital of Australia. Similar to Brasilia, Canberra was a purpose built capital and there was a competition to design it. An American couple won the bid and so Canberra began. There was a lot of debate about where to put the capital and one of the exhibits showed pros and cons for different areas that put themselves forward as the new location. Things like weather, farm land, and population were some notable factors. I also liked the section of all the different proposed names.

After the National Capital Exhibition we headed over to the Australian War Memorial to revisit all the different galleries that I couldn't walk through yesterday. We were here for a few hours and didn't even read that much, more walked around taking it all in. There were so many dioramas, artifacts, stories, pictures, and so on. Something I never considered was Australia's role in the wars being so close to Asia and the Pacific. The galleries were organized by conflict with the two world wars being the biggest areas. The bottom floor had galleries with information about the Cold War and related conflicts such as the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

Some of the areas in the galleries hit harder than others. For example, sections detailed POWs, but also cruelty of Japanese soldiers towards women. The impact of the wars when the survivors came home was also so heart wrenching. Men who came back had mental and physical injuries that many never recovered from. Some exhibits, after highlighting mental and physical struggles, such as limbless men or those with PTSD, showed what communities and the government tried to do to help like teaching the men to sew and embroider. Many were also given jobs that contributed to society and required them to work as a unit.

The Australian War Memorial is definitely worth the trip to Canberra if you ever visit Australia. It was so special to be able to visit.

It was lunchtime by the time Penny and I left the memorial. We drove over to a burger joint that Penny told me used to just be a small food truck near the university and has grown into a franchise with a few buildings around Canberra. I had a lamb burger and some onion rings which were both amazing. Then it was time to bid Penny farewell. I dropped her off at her apartment, picked up our laundry, and headed back into the center. It was so wonderful to be able to spend time with Penny and have her also fill in some blanks for me about Canberra and Australia during our two tourists visits in the morning.

After I left Penny's, I headed back towards the National Capital Exhibition for the parking lot and to start a walk around some smaller sights nearby. The walk followed the lake along RG Menzies Walk. It was a beautiful day and perfect for a walk beside the water. I stopped at quite a few places along the way:
Captain Cook Memorial- a globe fountain commemorating Captain Cook's 'discovery' of Australia
Commonwealth Park- a nice park near the lake with ducks and a pond
Rond Terrace- orange gravel in front of a government building for military parade and formation practice and ceremony
Blundells Cottage- an old cottage in Canberra
Queen Elizabeth II Island- this has benches and trees as well as the National Carillon on it with a little bridge from RG Menzies Walk to the small island
National Carillon- the building with the bells in it on Queen Elizabeth II Island
Merchant Navy Memorial- a small memorial beside the path for the merchant navy
Kings Avenue Bridge- I walked across this simple bridge to the other side of the lake
National Gallery of Australia Sculpture Garden- the sculpture garden was lovely with a myriad of different sculptures and artists
International Flag Display- over a hundred international flags are on display and lit up at night, as per the UN
Australians of the Year Walk- at least one Australian a year is acknowledged for contributions to Australia and is given a plaque all of the waterfront on the walk

I walked back across a second nameless bridge back to the National Capital Exhibition to get the car. I headed to Mount Ainsley to meet Allan for sunset. I was there a bit before him, so I read some of the signs and started a new book I picked up at the war memorial about the only animal POW, a dog called Judy. I'm looking forward to learning about her.

Mount Ainsley gave good views over the city and the viewpoint is dedicated to Marion Griffin, the woman of the husband and wife pair that won the bid to design Canberra. She was the mastermind behind the whole thing, and an architecture student. Her husband spoke of her contributions and genius, but they put his name first to have a higher chance of winning. The sun was to the right of the viewpoint that overlooked the city and it was a bit blocked by trees, so it wasn't the best sunset spot, but it was a good spot to see the layout of the city, similarly to the TV Tower in Brasilia.

We drove back to our hotel and got some dinner before going up to our room to end a very busy day. Tomorrow we begin another journey onwards to Melbourne and Adelaide.Læs mere