What a capital idea - a quick Canberra visit

[bPeteb]

As many of you are aware (from my posts on the whose flying domestic thread) we visited Canberra last weekend. I have a niece who is a radiation oncologist at the Canberra hospital, our friends who put us up at the embassy in Tokyo have returned home and most important of al bigal hasn't ever been.

This trip was one of our 'fill every long weekend' jaunts, a few of which haven't paned out as hoped.

On top of the fairly cheap Y flights from BNE-SYD-CBR_SYD-BNE (targeted DSC) we also booked a Luxury Escape. This was all done in Feb when that virus that was being mentioned would surely not impact us...

LE was two nights at Pepper's Gallery Hotel and included breakfast, $50 f&b credit, two coughtails (one each) per night, a smoked meat platter and wine tasting at Poacher's Pantry, a wine tasting and tour at Mt Majura and some spa vouchers at some place (not the hotel).

As things started to worsen LE was in touch a number of times offering free date change. QF kept changing the flights. One change included an overnight stay in Sydney! We ended up with direct BNE-CBR-BNE flights. The hotel then also started contacting us advising us that service levels had changed to meet requirements. We should consider these and contact LE if we wanted to change to a later date. Breakfast would be brought to the room, the opening hours of bar and restaurant had changed. The inclusions at Poacher's Pantry and Mt Majura also required us to call the venues to discuss. We stuck with the dates.

I called Poacher's a couple of weeks before we left and they advised the offer was now just a wine tasting with a paid meal. Initially I booked brunch but we chatted and decided we'd give it a miss. We also didn't bother with Mt Majura and had not intention of using our $25 spa vouchers to spend another $150+.

The J lounge at BNE last Friday was moderately busy. Food offered was the already posted 'party pies'



plus a lasagne, maybe soup, some nice little salads, sangers and some cakes.

Lots of Q400s on the move outside plus our 738 at gate 17. I've just noticed the 717 at 16, exactly where we ended up when we came home Sunday evening



The flight was two thirds full with most people two in a three. I had no-one beside me in the window. Snack was crackers and salsa plus water/softdrink



Wifi was rubbish. I couldn't stream anything on my iPad and IFE not switched on.

We flew inland initially but then I looked out and noticed we were above Sydney's northern beaches and we flew south before turning in somewhere south of Royal National Park



Some interesting clouds as we came into land at Canberra



Scotty from Marketing's plane sitting ready for him to take another flight to announce some more pork barrelling



Zero checking of anything when we arrived into CBR. Straight down the escalators and out to the car rental offices.

I'd initially considered hiring a Tesla Model 3 for our weekend. A lot of private owners now do this through a couple of websites. I wasn't prepared to book it with what was happening so I stuck with one of the mainstream and booked a Corolla hybrid through Thrifty. Of course when we got there "we don't have any small hybrids available so we've upgraded you". Mmm... first car was locked out, second car locked out, third car it was "well you've been upgraded even more". Big whoop, a Nissan X-Trail. The funniest thing about this was it had two baby seats set up in the back. I'm sure it had been reserved but we just got in and drove out the carpark to the hotel. We are very bad people.

The Pepper's Gallery is in a great location close to the lake. Ovolo Nishi is next door and QT down the road so that means their bars and restaurants as well. We had time to check in (small odd room), park the car in the pre-reserved parking ($15 per night) and confirm time for breakfast before we were picked up by our friends for dinner at theirs.

We stopped at the Ainslie shops and bought some local wines (I asked for recommendations). We bought a Mada Rouge 2019 Rouge, a Nick O'Leary Sangiovese Sangiovese | Nick O'Leary Wines and a Collector Nightwatch Grenache. New Release - Night Watch Grenache 2019. The grenache came home with us. The other two were delicious, especially the Rouge.

 

[Cossie]

Did you buy your wine at the Ainslie Wine Cellars?


I like that shop.

 

[bPeteb]

Did you buy your wine at the Ainslie Wine Cellars?


I like that shop.

We did. It had quite the selection!!

 

[bPeteb]

The 'odd' breakfast arrived on a tray as we'd advised both on check in and by email weeks before. I'm all for sensible changes made because of COVID (from a customer and staff health perspective) but I believe that some continue for a purely cost cutting reason. This weird breakfast is one. On Kangaroo Island we were provided with a breakfast menu and this was served in their socially distanced restaurant. This tray was just like at The Reef House - no options given. AT least at Reef House it was in the restaurant as well.

Yoghurt for one and dry granola for 20. The milk I had to ask for as there was none in the fridge and none was brought with that tray.



We used the teaspoons already in the room to eat this



How hard would it be to ask people what they want via something to hang on the door - we would have had a pot of coffee (instead of coffee from the nespresso machine in the room) and one bowl of fruit and cereal between us. This tray is clearly an Accor thing as The Reef House and Pepper's Gallery are both under the Accor Umbrella.

A colleague and her family had made the trip from Sydney to Canberra for the October long weekend and had found that everything had to be pre-booked so we were prepared for the National Museum and had free timeslot tickets booked for Endeavour Voyage Endeavour Voyage | National Museum of Australia

It was a 15 minute walk from the hotel along the shore of Lake Burley Griffin to the pretty much deserted museum. The museum is an interesting building







We showed our online tickets and spent a couple of hours in the exhibit. It's the aboriginal perspective of the Endeavour's journey up the east coast. You walk along the coast and into the bays and inlets and hear and read about what the different mobs who live/d there saw and felt. Up the middle of the exhibit is the ocean and to the right is the story of the Endeavour's voyage at the same time. It's really well done.

The waterspouts that great you at the start of the exhibit



and a couple more art works





When we were in Cooktown the Reconciliation Rocks were briefly mentioned. They are actually very significant in the context of Cook, and the ongoing conversation about recognition Reconciliation Rocks

What we hadn't realised was how important the writings of Cook and those on the Endeavour became in determining native title land claims. They constantly wrote about the people they saw, the smoke in the distance coming from fires lit by people, their meetings with local mobs, witnessing them fishing and gathering. Cook declared terra nullius and yet wrote the following contradictory statement.



Read Dark Emu to learn about aboriginal culture and society as it really was as Endeavour sailed up our east coast.

 

[bPeteb]

As far as we could work out there was nothing else open at the Museum. There was an ABC broadcast van



an old Holden towing a caravan and the giant Dolly Varden toilet roll doll from the Olympics in the vast central area



and nothing else. I suppose we should have asked. Instead we had coffee and cake looking out over the lake



and were entertained by some noisy miners who wanted our crumbs





down on the lake is an old, working, paddle steamer. The oldest working paddle steamer in the country. It looks like you can go out on it but there was no sign of anyone when we went down to look at it.

More of the museum

 

[bPeteb]

and now for drron, some flower photos from the museum gardens

 

[bPeteb]

We drive up Mt Ainslie to get the full Canberra picture






Samsung galaxy s20+ultra 1 gazillion zoom



and another zoom with the Samsung, ordinary but amazing from a phone camera nevertheless

 

[bPeteb]

We strolled back to the hotel, retracing our steps along the shore of the lake. Lots of beautiful rosellas buzzing about. The Ovolo Nishi is next door to the Gallery Hotel. Beautiful green wall exterior. Includes a palace cinema




We arrived early for our 1pm Parliament House free 30 minute tour (way too short!! We should have booked a longer one). It's 41 years since I've been to Canberra. This was just a forested hill before.

I LOVE this building. It is just beautiful architecture. The marble in the 'marble hall' could/should have been locally sourced stone - sandstone, limestone, any stone but Italian marble and would have been timeless instead of dated and a bit Christopher Skase. Even timber clad so they looked like giant tree trunks. It is a beautiful structure of large open spaces, beautiful timber work, great lighting - both natural and powered. It could have been garish and apart from all of that marble it's remarkably subtle. I'm glad I've finally seen it and will go back for a longer tour.

 

[bPeteb]

and there's more





the 'budget' tree




we both liked Julia's portrait





The famous Shaun (Sean?) the shrimp

 

[bPeteb]

Next pre-booked (while we were waiting to go into Parliament House) stop was the recommended by many National Portrait Gallery. We parked beside Old Parliament House, had a stroll through the old parliament house rose garden










Water feature outside of the gallery

 

[bPeteb]

We went in, realised we were starving, came back out, asked if the cafe was open, had a quick lunch and went back in.

View from our table




some good local beers



I don't think we've ever concentrated so hard in a gallery. We read pretty much every card. We were there a LONG time. It is only a single level but gee there are a lot of galleries. We really enjoyed it

I don't usually see the point in photographing pictures/paintings in galleries but I did like this one of a famous Australian diver



and this one in the pub rock exhibition



we wandered back to the car across the park




past the Aboriginal tent embassy that I first saw in the early 70s



we didn't have time for the museum on old parliament house

 

[bPeteb]

but I did have time to snap some more beautiful roses








with our package had a coughtail of the day for each night of our stay. We hadn't used the voucher the first night and it was no problem to use them both so we sat out in the sunny courtyard and had a couple of coughtails. Is an Aperol spritz a coughtail?

 

[Cossie]

Enjoyable reading, there is lot's to do in the A.C.T.
Like a lot of young people in Canberra in the early seventies, I had a summer job working for Parks and Gardens, one stint was working in the gang that looked after those rose gardens! Never pruned a rose in my life prior to then. We also went into the ones on either side of the old house, The Lodge and Government House. No id checks, just rocked up in our "Z" plated vehicles and in to do our work. Don't think I've pruned a rose since.

 

[Lynda2475]

I have the Luxury Escapes Peppers deal booked for the AFF Gathering in early December, i didnt expect to use the wine tasting or spa vocuhers due to attending AFF events, but the breakfast looks woeful and I wouldnt eat anything other than the croissant (but would prefer some protein), the fruit is full of cheap melon (i have an allergy) and not a fan of cereal or yoghurt and no real coffee *sigh*.

They really ought to tell you the breaky offerings in advance and allow some choice, I hate seeing food wasted. Good reminder to do my research and make breaky bookings eslewhere. Did you spot any good cafe breaky offerings close by?

I also booked in Feb and I havent been contacted yet about any changes yet, maybe can hope that the resturant may reopen by then? I guess at least i'll get the coughtails.

 

[bPeteb]

I have the Luxury Escapes Peppers deal booked for the AFF Gathering in early December, i didnt expect to use the wine tasting or spa vocuhers due to attending AFF events, but the breakfast looks woeful and I wouldnt eat anything other than the croissant (but would prefer some protein), the fruit is full of cheap melon (i have an allergy) and not a fan of cereal or yoghurt and no real coffee *sigh*.

They really ought to yell you the breaky offerings in advance and allow some choice, I hate seeing fodo wasted. Good reminder to my research and make breaky bookings eslewhere. Did you spot any good cafe breaky offerings close by?

I also booked in Feb and I havent been contacted yet about any changes yet, maybe can hope that the resturant may reopen by then? I guess at least i'll get the coughtails.

Yes, coughtails, the most important, and we also used the $50 F&B credit for a nice dinner at Bicicletta. It's open for dinner, just not breakfast.

For breakfast Morning Glory is in the same structure as the hotel Morning Glory and there's a cafe right behind the hotel in the NewActon complex Mocan and Green Grout Menu that looked very nice.

 

[bPeteb]

Between coughtails and dinner I wandered across the road to have a look at the Academy of Science building. I remember this as my favourite building from the Canberra visits of my childhood and teen years. What a great building. It's good to see it being restored. I understand it's going to be a function centre of some kind.

Here's some copies of slides from a family visit before I was born




and how it looks today





look at those wonderful steps!!!









The hotel is only two levels, built into what I presume to be an old government building. It's the red roofed building in this picture. Multiple wings leading off the modern entry lobby



now for some native flowers

 

[VPS]

I think the National Portrait Gallery at Canberra is excellent. I've had several excellent meals at their cafe too

 

[bPeteb]

We had dinner at Bicicletta and it was really good. Staff were great. It must be an odd thing working in a mask as all of the staff throughout the hotel were.







Excellent local Riesling



fritto di misto and arancini



pork cutlet (daily special and a little over-cooked)



the ragu daily special (beef, and apparently delicious)



tiramasu (delicious)





pannacotta (I did get a taste of this and it was also excellent)

 

[RooFlyer]

The famous Shaun (Sean?) the shrimp

Its actually a bit of coral that looks like a shrimp . But reminds me of a true story ...

A palaeontologist specialising in fossil snails was standing at a urinal, which was adorned above with polished limestone, just like in your pic. He found himself gazing at a fossil snail he didn't recognise. Came back, took an (old fashioned) picture and later found that it was a new species.

I remember this as my favourite building from the Canberra visits of my childhood and teen years.

Me too.

 

[OZDUCK]

Your great photos are making me very nostalgic for the 2 years we lived there - now a horrifying, to me anyway, 35 years ago.