We spent some time last night organising a loose itinerary for today. Originally we thought we may use public transport to look around, as we had noticed that parking in the city was $3.00 per hour, however on a closer look at the bus website, we found that there was a daily travel ticket that would cost $9.60 each. We would not spend that much on parking, so we decided that it was easier to take the car.
We awoke to another very smokey hazy sky, which sadly meant the views were not as clear as they could be. The smoke in the air meant the sun appeared as a glowing red ball.
We decided to start at the Australian War Memorial. We arrived too early for it, but we were able to have a look at the displays outside. We have both been here before so we were not too disappointed.
The view from the War Memorial to Parliament House is impressive. We then decided to see it from the top of the hill behind the war Memorial. We drove up to the lookout on Mt Ainslie.
From the War Memorial, we drove to the National Art Gallery We had to pay to park here so paid for an hour that cost us $3.20. We wandered around looking at the displays and we can say we have now seen Blue Poles 🙂
I had intended to visit the High Court and the Portrait Gallery while we were in this area as well, but as it was now around 10:30 am, I chose to go to Parliament House, as there was a tour starting at 11:00 that we wanted to do. I knew the parking here was free for 2 hours.
We arrived at Parliament House. with time to spare only to discover that the tours now start at 11:30am!! We had plenty of time to look around before the tour. The 40 minute tour was very informative and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.
After the tour ended, we decided to head back into the city to have lunch at 65 Northbourne, a restaurant that we had a voucher for. We parked at a carpark we had seen the day before from the free bus and decided we would get 2 hours parking. Being in the middle of the city, parking here was $9.00
The menu looked really good, and we decided on Entrees and Mains (but decided against Wallaby Shanks! ) and a glass of wine each. We were not disappointed, the meals were amazing.
Trio of Dips & Turkish Bread
Scallops with Prosciutto and Balsamic
Veal Saltimbocca
Turkish Marinated Lamb Cutlets
After lunch, we were going to head back to the Art Gallery but decided against it as was just too hot (35 degrees today), and we still wanted to visit the Royal Mint.
The mint was very interesting with lots of information about the history of our currency. We arrived too late to join a guided tour, but the guide book was helpful and each display has good informative signage.
Back in the car, we headed to Woolworths to get some cheese and crackers for dinner and top up our food stocks for the next couple of days travel.
We arrived back to the apartment at around 5:00pm and both had showers to cool off before watching some TV and having an early night.
After a busy Christmas Day, we had an early night and a good sleep in. We packed up, had breakfast and left Wollongong on our way to Canberra where we will stay two nights.
Rather than going straight down the highway, we wanted to look at a motel in the town near where our grandsons and their parents live. This motel used to be really rundown, but we were told it has been sold and renovated.
We stopped in and found the owner/manager who was more than happy to show us a couple of rooms. We were very happy and will be booking in when we come done for the little guy’s first birthday.
Back on the highway, we decided to detour through Mittagong, Bowral and Mona Vale before coming back to the highway.
There were fires about to the south west of us and the sky was very smoky. We got a text from the family who are also travelling south for a few days. They are travelling the coast road and they relayed that the fires had been VERY close, and the Rural Fire Service have done well to save houses and caravan parks.
We stopped off in Goulburn and swapped drivers. I little further along, the map on the navigation, showed we should have had a very large lake on the left of the highway. All we could see were grass paddocks?? I ‘Googled” Lake George on my phone and found that it is a very odd phenomenon. The lake has no surface outlet and the depth rises and falls depending on rainfall, run-off and evaporation. You can read more here. Hubby sent a photo from his phone to his Dad showing the “lake” and Dad sent back a text saying he knew a boy from school who drowned in the lake!!
Lake??
Open Paddocks
but no water
to be seen.
We arrived in Canberra in time for lunch. We were planning on a restaurant that we had a voucher for, but being a public holiday, it was not open. We saw a “Hog’s Breath” for which we also have a 25% off, so decided to go there for a nice steak lunch.
After lunch, we found our AirBnB in a brand new suburb on the outskirts of town. We did have a little bit of an issue opening the gate we need to get through to access our unit, but we managed in the end. After we unpacked, we headed back to the city to catch a free “Culture Loop” sightseeing bus. We chose to drive the National Sound and Film Archive as we could park there and catch the bus. The plan was to just do the loop (which takes an hour) and decide on an itinerary for the next day.
We had a 15 minute stop in the middle of town, so we strolled down a mall and came across a carousel!!
We did the loop and returned back to the Film and Sound Archive. I decided we should have look around. Unless we missed something, there was not a lot to see 🙁 There was a theatre that was playing a short film about life in Brisbane in 1964. So, of course, we had to stay to watch it. You can watch the video here…It was fun to watch and see familiar sights.
There are 14 videos in this “Life in Australia” series. You can view them all here
Back in the car, we found a Woolworths and bought enough groceries for the next few days. We were surprised to see that the suburban supermarket did not have free parking. Luckily it was free today as it was a public holiday. $2 an hour for parking would make you quicker with your shopping.
Back to the apartment, we settled in for the evening and work out what we would do the next day. I did plan on going to the Telstra Tower but it is so smokey, I don’t think we will bother 🙁
Telstra Tower shrouded in smoke
I am pleased to see that one week in, our budget is at an acceptable $0.74 per km. Many of the caravanning travel blogs I read say that $1 per km is the budget to aim for. You can see our costs at the bottom of this post.
Today is Christmas Day with family. Our “big” little boy is 3 and is SOOO excited that Santa is coming 🙂
We had breakfast at our AirBnB before heading to see the family and swap presents. We then made our way to an extended family Christmas Day. It is always fun catching up with the family. Kids all get a bit crazy because they are over tired but we are lucky that, even though some of us have had our differences, we can all come together with civility as a family with no malice.
Today was just a travel day. As mentioned, I had thought that today would be a bit of a horror trip travelling down busy highways in and out of Sydney as well as Sydney traffic itself.
As it turned out it was not too bad. I must admit it was great to have the navigation in the car that told me what lane to be in at the right time. The traffic was travelling well and because of the holiday “double demerit points” nobody was speeding and all in all, it was a comfortable trip.
We arrived at our AirBnB just after midday. We met our host who said he was not quite ready for us. No problem, we would go and have some lunch first.
We had lunch at the Headlands Tavern, where we have been a few times before and know we always get a nice meal.
After lunch, we found Woolworths and topped up the “pantry” again and arranged groceries for lasagne for dinner tonight with my son, his wife and the grandsons
Later in the afternoon, the family came to visit. It was great to see everybody and have lots of cuddles with the grandsons. Our two little boys are now 3 and 6months and it always a joy to see them.
We had a lovely few hours and arranged to meet them at their house tomorrow for Christmas Day.
We got up this morning to hear the quacking of ducks at our front door 🙂 A couple of crusts were made into “duck breakfast”
We had decided to do something a little different today and do a half day winery tour… By Horse and Carriage !!!
I made the booking online and was told that we had courtesy transport and we needed to be out the front of the resort at 10:15am.
I “assumed” that a transfer meant a shuttle bus…but NO, at 10:15 we heard the clip clip of horses hoofs and the jingle of the harnesses.
We spent the next 4 hours meandering through various vineyards and stopped at a number of them for tastings before arriving at the Blaxland Inn for lunch. After lunch, we were returned to our resort.
We got back to the room only to be greeted by our friendly ducks waiting for us at the door to our room)
It was a most enjoyable day. We spent the afternoon relaxing in the room. I am planning an early start again tomorrow as I am expecting reasonably heavy traffic on both the highway into Sydney and then again from Sydney south to Wollongong. Although Google Maps tells me the journey is only 217kms, I am expecting the trip to take 4 hours or more.
