Today the sun was shining so after breakfast we set off to walk around the Capital, the hotel is right on the edge of the Government district and right in the middle of the Embassy district so perfectly located for sightseeing but not so great for restaurants or possibly even shops. We had planned to do a walk I had found in the UK, but as we walked to the start we saw a sign for Tourist Information so we decided to call in and I am really glad we did as they had a fantastic display on Canberra and basically how to navigate your way round it. Basically there was an international competition to design the city, this competition was won by Walter and Marion Griffin who presented a design that used the natural landmarks. There are three mountains and basically these form the triangle that links everything. The two bridges form two sides of the triangle, the lake which was once a river forms the third and at the point is the hill that contains Parliament House. Our walk was along Lake Burley Griffin which is the ornamental lake at the centre of the Griffins’ plan for Canberra, it consists of three water basins – formal central basin and more recreational basins to the west and east. It was created by damming the Molongio River. This is a great way to see the city and you don’t feel like you are in a city at all, more like the country with a town near by. At 11:00 the water fountain outside visitor information starts, this is not the most flamboyant fountain we have ever seen but as the bells in the Carillon Towner strike 11:00 the water fountain starts and it is a single spout that shoots 150 metres into the air at 260km per hour (apparently!) which can pretty much be seen from everywhere. The designers of the city obviously liked symmetry as half way along you can look from the top of the Anzac Parade to the top of Parliament hill which is quite an impressive view. The Anzac Parade was part of the Griffiths’ original plan for the city, the red gravel was originally made from crushed house bricks to make them sound like boots crunching, the parade is just over 1km long and has memorials for all the major conflicts and the people that took part in them. We continued walking and finally crossed the second bridge to return to the Parliament side of the river and then started walking up the hill. The original plan was to have Parliament house half way up the hill as the designers wanted the people to be able to look down on the politicians to ensure the politicians always remembered they were looking out for them rather than the other way round, The parliament first met in the provisional Parliament House in 1927 however in 1988 the new building was opened which is actually at the top of the hill so looks down over everything, they still allow the public to walk around the top of the building but that is more a gesture than the symbolism of the original design as you can only get up there when the building is open to the public! All the same we went in and had a walk round. Parliament is on its summer recess at the moment so we were allowed to go into both the houses which show they were purpose built for today’s parliament, even the public gallery has nice seating and they have a section where the school children can sit which is behind glass which is so that the teachers can explain what is happening rather than so the noise they make doesn’t upset the politicians. The symmetry theme even runs through the parliament building as the house of representatives and the senate are exactly the same design but opposite sides of the building. Despite the fact I think they have rather missed the point on the location the view from the roof is fantastic. After we finished walking round the parliament we walked down to the Kingston area which was the nearest place with restaurants and had a really nice Thai, then we walked back to the hotel along the river which was really nice. We finally got back about 5:30 and jumped in the shower as despite the hail storm a couple of days ago it was really hot today. Tomorrow we move on to the Blue Mountains so hopefully this nice weather will remain although that isn’t actually the forecast! I have to say of all the cities we have been to I really like Canberra although I think Adelaide is probably still my favourite.
