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.