All to ourselves.

 Sunday 18th December 2016

Today we were going to the southern side of the city.  The side where most of the public buildings are.

In the morning we walked across the bridge, over the Burley Griffin Lake (named after the man who designed the city).  Our first port of call was the Australian Parliament Building.

The building was opened by the Queen in 1988.  It is modern and very functional but stylish too.  We got on a free tour.

This is the foyer.  It is one of the few photos we took today with other people in it.

The House of Representatives, a bit like our House of Commons.  There is a House of Senate too.  It is pretty similar but is a pale red colour.  

Whilst up on the roof we had our packed lunch....I'm not sure that we could do that at our Houses of Parliament.

We visited the National Gallery of Art and despite this picture we didn't see the Versailles Exhibition.

We saw the old Parilament Building, and the international flag display.  Also there is a Captain Cook Memorial Jet but it looks more like I have got another blowhole!

It could have been worse!

Back across the bridge, we walked through Commonwealth Park and back to the public square we visited last night.  It was still the same but quieter.  I couldn't resist the food and beer.  We had a great chat with the people serving at the bar.

Here's a real action shot of me eating a bratwurst.

We walked again across Vernon Circle and we had confirmed it was named after Walter 'Liberty' Vernon, an architect from High Wycombe, England who worked for the Australian Government.  What a great middle name.  

We have been completely shocked by the lack of human activity in the city.  The roads are quiet, there were very few people anywhere.  It wasn't just us waiting for photos where there was no one around, there was actually no one around.  Can you imagine walking into the British Parliament and having no one in sight!  Just to prove it here's one more photo.

That one car is parked and unattended and the two small dots in the distance are people.  It was like this most of the day.  I am not making this as a complaint, we loved it without crowds.  We loved the place and the people we spoke to.  The buildings were well spread out, no congestion at all.  You would hardly think there was a residential city here.  When we went into the shopping streets, the shops were closed on the last Sunday before Christmas, can you believe it!  It will be manic shopping back home.  We prefer this.