Canberra
As part of my road trip I spent an afternoon and evening in Canberra, including going to Question Time at Parliament, which was absolutely hilarious! Our government would be far more interesting if our representatives insulted and shouted down each other like the Aussie MP's do :-)
November 18, 2004

01-ParliamentHouse Parliament House in Canberra, Australia's capital city 02-MagnaCarta The fourth and final original copy of the Magna Carta, kept on display inside the Parliament House ... since it is the final copy with all the minor revisions on the previous three editions, the Latin text of this version is the one that is officially codified into British Commonwealth Law 03-Flagpole The flagpole atop Parliament House 04-AnzacPde Looking out from a balcony at Parliament House down Anzac Parade, with the Old Parliament House (white building), the War Memorial and Mt Ainslie visible in the background 05-MarbleForest A veritable forest of marble columns inside Parliament House 06-Pillars Marble pillars of Parliament House 07-Entrance Standing at the entrance to Parliament House, looking towards Old Parliament House and Mt Ainslie 08-Mosaic An outdoor ground mosaic of an Aboriginal design 09-CoatOfArms A wiry version of Australia's coat of arms ... the two animals on the coat of arms are the kangaroo and the emu, both of course native to Oz, and as a fun fact, they are the only two animals in the world that are unable to walk backwards 10-BlackMtn Telstra Tower, atop Black Mountain 11-OldParliamentHouse Old Parliament House, down the hill from Parliament House ... this was the seat of government until the late 1980s 12-ParliamentHouse Parliament House ... it certainly is a distinctive piece of architecture 13-RoseGarden A large rose garden near Parliament House 14-Courtyard A pretty courtyard just outside of Parliament House 15-ChineseLion A Chinese lion sculpture in one of the courtyards 16-WoodenSculpture An odd wooden sculpture in a courtyard 17-ParliamentHouse Parliament House 18-RegattaPoint Regatta Point, on the shores of Lake Burley-Griffin ... this sculpture traces the three circumnavigations of the globe made by Captain James Cook and his crew ... Parliament House can be seen in the background on the right 19-CaptainCookMemorial Captain Cook Memorial at Regatta Point in Commonwealth Park 20-Willow A beautiful weeping willow tree hanging over Lake Burley-Griffin 21-English The English inscription of a memorial accompanying some cherry trees that were donated by the Japanese government awhile back ... Canberra is absolutely chock full of memorials and monuments like this one from governments and dignitaries (for example, I also came across a monument next to an oak tree that was planted by Rosalyn Carter when she was First Lady) 22-Japanese The Japanese translation of the cherry tree inscription 23-CherryTrees The small grove of cherry trees that were donated by the Japanese government back in 1980 24-LakeBurleyGriffin Lake Burley-Griffin ... it is a man-made lake, created by the damming of the Molonglo River 25-MolongloRiver Lake Burley-Griffin/Molonglo River 26-Gareth-Bowling That night I stayed with James' friend Simon in Canberra, and in the evening Simon took me out bowling with some of his friends, including Gareth (pictured)