A rude awakening. The fire alarm in the hotel went off a bit after 7 this morning. So we got up and dressed and awaited instructions. After 5 minutes or so we were told to evacuate, and less than a minute later (by the time we had gotten to the stairs) we were told it’s a false alarm. Well, that got the adrenaline going for the morning.

We had a shower, and I ate a banana to keep me going. And then we went to the Haig Park Village Market for a bit more breakfast and a wander. We sat at a table to eat, and returned to the hotel for teeth, and a final pack. We checked out and hit the road just after 9.30, for the long trip home.

Our first stop was at Holbrook. We got there about 12.15. We stopped at the sub to use the toilets, and had a look in the visitor information centre. We then ordered some lunch from the cafe, which unfortunately took a long time to prepare, so it was about an hour later that we finally got back in the car. We then stopped at the National Pottery Museum of Australia, and did a (paid) tour of that, looking at pottery created by early convicts, up to things created more recently. Some of the glazing was just amazing.

About 1.50 we were back on the road, and got to the servo near Euroa to fill up on petrol, and have a bit of a leg stretch / toilet break. Then back in the car for the final stretch, and we got home about 6.00. 1,500kms, and lots of things seen. It was certainly a nice holiday.

After a shower, we had left over pizza and donut for breakfast, and some juice. We then hopped in the car and drove to the Capital Region Farmers Market. It was in an undercover shed, with parts outside, including a jazzy band which was really enjoyable to listen to. We bought a chocolate croissant and a rhubarb tart, and put it in our bag for later. We also bought a tub of honey.

We then made our way over to the botanic gardens to check them out. We got a 1 hour parking ticket, so did the “main track” walk, which was said to be 30 minutes. It took us a while longer as we took it at a nice, leisurely place. At the end I had a hot chocolate, and Kaoru had a coffee.

We then drove over to the mint, and had a wander around there. Because it was a Saturday, it wasn’t “operational”, so there was nothing to see through the viewing windows, but it was still interesting to walk around and read a bit of the history of money in Australia. There were also some videos of the machines in operation. We bought the vegemite 100 year coin set, for $33 – hopefully that becomes a collectors item in the future.

It was getting to lunch time, so we drove to Parliament House, and had a picnic out the front; we got a parking spot in the 1hr zone down the bottom (away from the crowd), pulled out the picnic rug, and enjoyed our pastries from the market, and some water. It was quite hot out in the sun, and I had to put some suncream on! But it was nice laying down in the sun and relaxing for a while.

We packed the car and drove over to the Glass Factory. This was fantastic. “Artists” pay to make their own creations, so it’s luck of the draw on whether you see anything happening or not. We took a seat and watched a few people making their creations, and remembered back to our glass-making experience in Japan some 7 years ago. They do have a 1:1 45 minute lesson to make a tumbler, for $180! I think we paid about $30 in Japan to do it. There are also workshops / courses, but they are also quite expensive.

We drove back to the hotel and had a short lay down to recharge.

After waking up, and a quick shower, we wandered around to find somewhere for breakfast. I had a benedict, which was nice, but a bit too much ham. We then returned to the hotel to do our teeth and plan the day.

We drove to the National Gallery and parked the car. We then enjoyed a nice walk along the lake to the library; despite it being cold it was quite nice in the sun. We had 20 minutes to kill, and then did an 11.00 tour of the library. It was great! Especially going in some “behind the scenes” areas, and seeing an old “archive” room which had a couple of old computers, a card catalog, and other old relics. We stayed for a while afterwards to look around the reading room.

We walked back to the National Gallery to have some lunch. Then we walked around the National Gallery to check it out. The contemporary art area was pretty dull – I’ll never understand how something which I could put together could be called “art”. But then looking at some 100+ year old oil paintings were amazing.

We got the car out of the carpark, and drove to Parliament House. We found a 1 hr free parking zone, so took that and walked around Parliament House. We went in to the House of Representatives, and the Senate, rooms, amongst other areas. We also caught lift to the roof and had a walk around the top, looking back to the War Memorial. There were some beautiful views. We also found a room which had a lego model of parliament house, which was extremely fascinating!

We got back in the car, and went for a drive out to Lake George. It was about 35km, and worth a look. We bought some donuts for a late 3-sies on our way back to the hotel. Then it was off to the pub for a beer, before italian for dinner. We couldn’t eat all of the pizza and pasta we bought, so took half the pizza back to the hotel room to eat for breakfast tomorrow, and went to the supermarket to buy some juice to go with it.

We started the day with no alarm which was nice. After a shower, we found a place for breakfast. Eggs, holandaise sauce on crumbed potato, brussel sprouts, carrot…interesting take on a benedict.

We went back to the hotel to do our teeth, and then made our way in to Floriade. We had seen a shuttle bus but we ended up just walking – it only took 20 minutes or so. We walked around for a couple of hours, taking photos and looking at all the tulips and flowers. We saw a bit of Lake Burley Griffin as well, so walked around the outside and back for a short distance. We had some lunch and a beer inside Floriade, which was just some dumplings – not our best choice :).

I was feeling a bit tired, so went back to the hotel for a brief siesta. Then we drove in to the war memorial. We didn’t have a booking, but were still able to go in. We totally lost track of time looking at the exhibitions inside – they started closing on us! So we had to cut the end of our tour short.

We then went for a drive up to the lookout and I had a hot chocolate. We then drove to the Black Mountain lookout (the Telstra Tower) and had a look from there, although couldn’t see as much from that one. So we then made it back to the hotel.

For dinner we went to Akiba. It was a much better meal, although we probably had too much. We asked for the “Feed Me” special, for $60 each. At the start it was a really nice pace with small serves, but then they came out with a few dishes at once, including rice, and we got quite full and couldn’t finish everything.

We came back to the hotel, watched some TV and went to bed.

We woke up this morning, got ready, and hit the road about 8.50.

Our first “rest” was at Glenrowan. We arrived ~11.30 for lunch, and also met up with Ants there to drop the ladder they left at our place on the weekend.

Back on the road, we crossed in to NSW, and stopped at the famous Ettamogah pub. Last time we were there, we weren’t able to get in as it was closed down. This time we were able to have a wander around, and a drink. It was a good time for another rest.

Back in the car, and we drove pretty much straight through to Canberra, arriving at our hotel just before 5.00. We checked in to our room, which was quite large. I caught up on work emails from the day (naturally some thing had happened today, which could have happened over the last week or so).

We wandered around the area to find somewhere for dinner. There seemed to be a lot of asian-style foods (and people). We went to a place which looked quite nice from the outside – with an upstairs balcony. But the meal was all deep fried, and fatty. We were both feeling pretty bloated. So we walked around for 45 minutes or so, to get our bearings. We went in to the supermarket and bought some juice and water, and some noodles to have some different food.

Back at the hotel we watched some TV and called it a night.