Sunday, November 11

Remembrance Day.  ANZAC Day is the big remembrance holiday here, in April, which lines up with the Gallipoli landing in WWI.  Remembrance Day isn't so big, but every year attendance at ceremonies increases. 

After our obligatory McD brekkie, off we went to park the car in advance of the remembrance day festivities.  The car park (where we had got rock-star parking for two days!) was closed, but they seemed to be organized for large crowds, so we got directed to park in the Mt Ainsley Reserve... basically right behind the ANZAC hall.  Drew drove in, and realized almost immediately that we were sinking.  Right up to the axles in mud!  I had to get out and push, and got covered in mud. Then the parking attendant came to help, to no avail.  Luckily a nice young fellow named Brendan got his 4x4 and pulled us out.  No harm done!

 

We attended the Remembrance Day ceremony, with about 4,000 other folks. This was the national ceremony, and was attended by the Prime Minister, the Governor General, the Chief of the Australian Defence Force, the three heads of the military branches, the chief justice of the supreme court, and a whole host of others. (In the States, you would NEVER see this same mixture of leaders in one place at the same time).

Exotic fresh floral wreaths... except for the UK, which was made of their paper poppies.

 

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  The fresh wreaths around it are in remembrance of the most recent 9 additions to the Roll of Honour.  Note the sailor and the soldier standing sentry at the two corners.

After the ceremony, many folks went into the memorial again, as did we.  We finished off our visit with the World War I and World War II galleries, then headed off to Parliament House.

 

The Australian Parliament House is fairly new from 1988.  It's very modern, with a large amount of the building appearing to be underground with a grass roof.  There is a free public parkade under the building... could you imagine doing that in Washington, DC?  There is a huge amount of public space in the building with lots of informative displays.  They even have one of four copies of the Magna Carta.

 

Me with a copy of the Magna Carta.

 

 

The Great Hall.  The artwork at the end of the hall is a tapestry made from a painting by a famous Australian artist.

 

The mosaic plaza.

 

From the actual roof of the building, there are great views of the city.  It's pretty much exactly opposite of what we saw from Mt. Ainsley.

 

View over the mosaic plaza, to the old Government House, with Anzac Parade and Mt Ainsley further on.

From the roof, this is the massive flag... the brouchure said the flag was the size of a double decker bus.

The coat of arms

Parliament House from the mosaic plaza.

 

About 4pm, we left Canberra for the drive back to Blaxland.  I even managed to drive for about half of the trip!  We pulled into the driveway just as Leanne and the kids were coming back from grocery shopping... good timing!