28-30 July 2024

My only brother David and I spent the 'weekend' together in Canberra, supposedly to celebrate my 60th birthday. Twas just an excuse to happily hang out together.

Canberra is about a 3-1/2 hour drive through gorgeous rolling Aussie countryside... complete with wild goats, and brilliant Aussie bush cafe hospitality in the middle of nowhere on the way!

Views from the War Memorial

As always, we had a brilliant time together.

We had great yummies at "Poppies" the cafe/restaurant at the War Memorial. The Memorial/Museum itself is currently undergoing massive renovations and construction. Still, what we saw there was amazing. Thankfully, my MS Legs behaved themselves the whole time. Thanks "Brian". [grins]

The exhibition in the various Galleries was simply breathtaking, even in its reduced mode. The famous World War 1 Dioramas are simply brilliant works of art. But that mud... omg...

We hadn't been to the War Memorial for years, but one thing that has always stuck in my mind when visiting as a child has been the HMAS Sydney Carley Float. It's the only piece recovered from the ship, which was lost with all hands.

Years later, they not only found the 'lost' wreck, but identified the sailor's skeleton found in the liferaft.

Those aren't bullet holes; it's shrapnel from when the ship [likely] exploded just as it was sinking.

This story has left an indelible mark in my memory.

It was cold first thing in the morning (below), but our little Motel had amazing heating, so it did not affect us. Of course, we dressed appropriately. There was no snow, but the wind chill was...

(-3.9c = 25f // -8.3c = 17f)

Of course, we got lost driving around Canberra (of course! It's par for the course! lol), and even got slightly lost walking thru the CBD one evening, looking for somewhere nice to eat (isn't it funny how everything feels/seems/looks different at night? lol). No harm done - we saw nice places we wouldn't have seen otherwise.

After the War Memorial, I took David for a tour thru Parliament House (where he'd never been before). Hugely impressive... even with all the Security and guns... eep! The Parliament wasn't even in session!

Even the weather was perfect for our drive home.