After a good night's rest, we were ready to head out into Canberra to explore the capital. We decided to head for Parliament House, and the guy behind the desk at the hostel told it would be a 15 minute walk…it took 35! We walked over the bridge that crosses Lake Burley Griffin in the centre of town. It is just one of many features planned in by the architect who designed Canberra as the capital city, when politicians couldn't agree whether Sydney or Melbourne should get the nod. It was decided that a new city would be specially created at least 100 miles from Sydney, and Canberra was born! It was named Canberra, which is an aboriginal name for 'meeting place', just so you know!

Our first stop was Old Parliament House, the meeting place of the Australian Parliament from 1927 to 1988. We ate lunch in the café there and had a tour around the building, which now hosts the boring-sounding museum of Australian Democracy. It turned out to be an interesting place - full of history and colourful characters. The building is quite small, and the décor hasn't been changed since 1988, so everything (typewriters, old phones, fax machines) seems a little out of place now! We got to see both chambers - the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as the Prime Minister's suite. This area had windows facing the road, which used to be left open so people walking past in the street outside could see the PM working at his desk! Security has changed a bit since those days! Eventually, the parliament outgrew the building and a new home for the MPs was commissioned.

Parliament House opened on Capitol Hill in 1988, after a world-wide competition to find a design for the new building. We don't quite know how the one that was chosen managed to win, as from the outside it looks like the Teletubbies house, built into the hillside. We called in for another guided tour and the inside was much more impressive, and lots bigger than the original. Again, we saw both chambers, recently visited by Barrack Obama, and went up to the roof to see the view across the city.

An interesting day for a history geek like me, and even Laura enjoyed it!

Back at the hostel, we cooked a meal of…pasta and sauce - our first since NZ! Then we caught up a bit more with the blog - we WILL get up to date by Christmas!