Tapestry in the Grand Hall, Parliament House
Andrew and I made another weekend trip to Canberra. This time it was to go and see Floriade, Canberra’s annual spring flower exhibition. We drove down on Saturday morning, stopping at Collector to go to Lynwood Cafe for lunch. It was a fancy place and lunch was absolutely delicious!! We then drove the last half an hour to Canberra and visited New Parliament House where we tagged onto a tour of the place (they’re run every half hour and go for about 45 minutes). It was about 5 years since I’d been through Parliament House, but I think it’s such an impressive place that I was keen to go again! I love the green marble pillars in the foyer (supposed to represent a forest) and the tapestry in the Grand Hall, and again they were my favourites. There was also an exhibition of photos from the Antarctic which were just wonderful. Last time I visited, you were able to walk all the way up and over the building on the grass that covers it, but now the top is fenced off and the only way up is from a lift inside Parliament House.
After visiting Parliament House, Andrew drove me to the Telstra Tower because I hadn’t been there before. It was $6 each to go up to the viewing platform, but we didn’t bother with that because we’d had such a good view from the Red Hill lookout the last weekend. Then we booked into our hotel room at University House (ANU) which is where we always try to stay when we visit Canberra (and don’t stay with friends). It is a nice quiet place, and while the rooms are quite old they are very roomy and you generally have a sort of lounge room as well as the bedroom and bathroom. The floor of the bathroom is also heated, which is very nice on chilly Canberra mornings!
We had trouble finding somewhere to eat out that evening. Everywhere we went was fully booked, and Andrew said he’s had this problem in Canberra before. So we ended up at a fast food joint, Nandos!
Sunday we went for breakfast at Andrew’s favourite little cafe in Canberra, and from there it was to Floriade. The flower festival was, as always, a colourful affair. The tulips, irises, daffodils and many other flowers were in full bloom. There were heaps of people there, and it was a gorgeous sunny day! We even caught up with the Canberra Flickr group! Not that I’ve ever posted anything in their group, but Andrew has. We also went to a talk about the Great Barrier Reef given by someone who has been researching the reef for over 30 years, and also a photographer who has been photographing the reef for about the same length of time. It was just wonderful to see his images!
So that was our weekend. We decided that we wouldn’t have many more opportunities to spend the weekend away together and alone, so we decided to make the most of it. I certainly had a wonderful time.
oooh love the floriade photos!