Canberra, November 9: Parliament House

We woke to the only included breakfast of our trip. I feel breakfast was one of our biggest failings of the trip. With staying in nine places over 20 days, breakfast became a challenge on most days. This was the one hotel we stayed in that included breakfast. And it was good and filling. Don loved the pancake making machine. I was thrilled with yogurt and Muselix, and hot tea. Unfortunately, our flight the next day was too early for us to enjoy.

When I did research into what to do in Canberra I was thrilled to see an open house for the Government House. This only happens once a month, and it was taking place on the one day we had to visit it. 

Back to feeling the trip was charmed.

We walked and walked and walked to the bus stop where we met a lovely woman from Zimbabwe also heading to Government House. She told us her country also does not have any guns, which makes it feel very safe. Very expensive, but very safe.

When we got off the bus at Parliament we noticed our new friend was still on the bus. We tried to get her attention, but she went on.

We went in the front door and learned we were at the wrong place. Yes, Government House is open today (the guards didn't even realize it was open that day), but this isn't Government House. Government House is where the Governor-General lives, not where government is housed. 

Ooops. 

I looked into what would be involved with going to Government House and it was just too complicated via Canberra's minimal mass transit. Back to it is the rare city that is easier to navigate with a car than via mass transit or even walking.

Regrouping. Let's enjoy Parliament.

Parliament is split into two sections: the House and the Senate. The House's room is green; the Senate's is rose. Easy to differentiate in pictures. The House is considered the people's house.

In 1901 Australia became their own government, but they are still tied to the Crown. King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla visited only a couple of weeks earlier.

For Don, the highlight was the large, detailed LEGO model, complete with sheep eating the grass on the roof. We took the elevator to the roof. While we did not see any sheep, we did see the grass.

It took 740 hours to put the 152,690 pieces together.

Don noticed a lot of clocks in the building and asked about them. There are 270 clocks that are all in sync with each other. They flash red or green when that chamber is about to have a vote. The representatives have four minutes to get into their chamber before they are locked out of the room.

We continued to walk around the building. I overheard a tour guide talking about a giant tapestry in a ballroom. The tapestry was made in 1986. Tradition says when a tapestry is made in a year when Hailey's Comet is visible, it is added to the tapestry. 

Parliament had a couple of other exhibits taking place. One was on relics from when London was bombed, including a film recorded by the Prime Minister of Australia when he visited London in October 1942 with his brand new camera right after the Blitz. It was eye opening to see that kind of footage realizing it was 80 years old.

There was another exhibit called "I am a Woman" about strong Australian women. In 1902 Australia became the first country to allow women to vote and to stand for public office. Remember, they only became their own government in 1901. 

After walking on the roof, and seeing the grass on the roof we tried to find the bus to take us to the War Memorial in time for our 2 pm visit. 

I don't know if it is I get confused by cars appearing on the other side or the road, or that Canberra's mass transit appears to be random, or, likely, a combination of the two, but it took us a while to find the right bus. We ended up stopping inside the library where a pack of dogs (and their owners) were gathered to help youngsters feel comfortable reading. I'm not a dog person, but I felt my blood pressure ease just seeing the dogs.

The library has an exhibit on immigration. Made me sigh wishing we could legally stay.

By some miracle, we caught the bus and made it to the War Memorial. Before Don's accident we would have given up and just walked the couple of miles. Even with mass transit, it was still a longer walk than it should have been. When we left, Google Maps directed us to a bus stop that was much, much closer. Had we missed the bus we took, there was a 45 minute wait until the next one. That's what I mean by minimal mass transit. It is similar to how it works in our suburb.