Australia 2024 - Day 7

Day 7 - July 4  Canberra

Grandpa came down to our apartment for breakfast, then we headed out to the War Memorial - we had tickets for 10am (opening time)  We had a bit of time to kill so stopped for a walk along Lake Burley Griffin, but it was too chilly to stay out too long.

Had a really nice visit to the War Memorial - It was interesting to hear Lexie note that the tone of this museum is very different from those found in the USA.  Generally those in the USA are all about celebrating those who fought, while this one is more about remembering - a lot more focus on the bad things that happened and a lot less glorification.

I don't think I have ever been into the room where the tomb of the unknown soldier is, but the mosaics in there were stunning, but unfortunately there was a lot of construction work going on, and all the big aircraft that they used to have are all in storage until the upgrades are finished.

                                      

                                      

We had morning tea in the attached "Poppy's" coffee shop, then it was time to collect Kate from her work and head for the Arboretum.  We drove right to the top of the Dairy Farmers Hill to the lookout, it was super windy and cold up there - even for us New Englanders, but it was a great view back over Canberra.

We headed back to the Visitors center and the Bonsai exhibition - these were all cool, but by far my favourite was the bonsai gum tree.

The Bonsai Banksia was cool, though the big bad banksia men are too big!

This Bonsai fig tree was also pretty cool.

We had lunch at the visitors center Cafe with a great view again.

After lunch we stopped at the "Wide Brown Land" sculpture.  This is a reference to the Poem by Dorothea Mackellar - the most well known second verse.

We went back to the apartment and dropped off Grandpa and the kids, then Kate and I headed out to the National Art museum.  I was a bit disappointed - too much modern art for my liking - but they did have a quilt exhibition which I really enjoyed.  Especially the quilt that was hand sewed by the women on one of the first boats to Australia.

There was also what I termed a micro quilt, each piece was only about 3" long by 1/2" wide.  such detail!

And this quilt done by a family with each section hand embroidered with a quote or saying.

We stopped by Kate's apartment on the way home, then picked up Grandpa and the kids and Kate took us to a Thai restaurant for dinner.