We headed a few miles west and then turned south for several hours. We passed miles of rolling pasture and cows with a few llamas and wild emus thrown in. We passed through several small villages, one of which decided to have cars park by backing into the angled spaces - glad I don't live there! We stopped in the historic town of Taralga and went into Melinda’s Take-away/grocery store where I ordered Chick-Corn Stick which turned out to be ground chicken, spices and corn, deep fried, and not bad! Bob ordered chips, fortunately the small size, as he received a large bowl of French fries which even he couldn't finish! Hilary got an apple/blackberry cake which was quite tasty with excellent flat white coffee. (we are finally learning the right way to order coffee....) We walked around the town admiring the stone buildings.
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| Melinda's Take-Away |
The elevation remained a surprisingly high 3-4000’ until we got near Canberra where we descended to a plain at 2000’ where it was considerably warmer. We merged briefly onto the Sydney-Melbourne freeway and entered Canberra on the Federal freeway about 3;30 PM.
Canberra was chosen as the capitol of Australia in the early 1900s and designed by the American architect, Burley Griffin, after whom the lake that bisects the city is named. The north half contains the city and its government and the south half has the federal government with wide boulevards and lots of green parks and bike paths creating a very open space.
We checked into the Crowne Plaza, thanks again to Hilary’s hotel points and parked the car in the underground lot, a very cramped spot full of dangerous columns, but with Hil’s driving skills and RRZ’s directions we maneuvered the Holden into the last spot!
Our room is very modern and cleverly designed with the bed in the middle of the room and a half wall behind it serving as the headrest and behind that an office area with desk
. We walked out into the 85 degree heat and found a pedestrian shopping area and with the map tried to get to the lake. Bob gave up and returned to the hotel to rest, while Hilary and I soldiered on, crossing freeway intersections and finally getting to the lake where we were deafened by a throbbing rock concert that seemed to be attracting a huge crowd. We walked along the shore watching boats sailing by, and returned, via garden and streams surrounding the lake, to the hotel.
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| Black Swan |
At 6:30 we all set out for dinner at Chairman & Yip, a beautiful Chinese restaurant where we were led upstairs and had a wonderful birthday meal for me! We split vegetarian pancakes for a starter and then shared pork chops with red dates and honey, prawns with chili and plum jam, and spicy lamb Shan-Tung style. They were all really delicious and the rice was extremely flavorful. For dessert we had green tea crème brulee and cinnamon and chili semi freddo (incredibly good) . We walked home at nine very happily satisfied!
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| The Chairman & Yip |
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