Canberra -Day 1

We took a mini break to Canberra- The purpose of the trip was to visit the National Gallery to see the Renaissance exhibition.( to get in the mood for September!!). We picked serendipitously, the best weekend to go - Canberra was full of sights!!

So we went via Goulburn and stopped at the Paragon Cafe to revisit our childhoods:_)Growing up in the country(not Goulburn but country towns very similar) in the 50's, every country town in Aus had a Paragon Cafe and served great milkshakes in tin containers. Dad was ecstatic to revisit that particular childhood memory! From Goulburn,past one of our great National Icons, it's a quick trip along the Federal Highway past Lake George and the windmills (squint -they're there in the distance!) to La 'Berra:-)

Our first stop was the Gallery where I snapped a couple of apparently illegal pics before a very officious assistant clapped her hands at me and yelled "No Photos". I pointed out to her politely that I hadn't seen any "No Photograph" signs, to which she replied there were none because they didn't want to interfere with the ambiance of the place. Apparently there was one on the front door -- I checked on the way out..it's down the bottom on the left hand side and about 1 cm high...o Puhlleseeese. So here are the illegals.. some Aboriginal art in the foyer
and these very cute little Indonesian clockwork Angels. - They're a bit blurry because at this stage the nasty lady clapped at me, and I jumped!


I was a bit bemused by the Renaissance exhib- the art is fabulous, but I was kind of confused about the restoring..most of them ( all the big names Botticelli, Raphael, Titian etc were so bright and perfect they looked as though they had been done yesterday not in the 1400s. And the Baby Jesuses are downright scary! Anyway, by tis stage I had the NO Pics rule firmly implanted, so there are none inside, but later, unexpectedly, much to my delight there was an illumination show on the facade of the building, so free renaissance for all in the moonlight! Great!!..
But first, a little drink in the sculpture garden with all the bright young things of Canberra


Then onto Dickson, (btw we took the Golf for it's first road trip)


where we had Korean-- very tasty, but very hot and fresh pure beer!!



We finished the night traipsing around the illumination display







Finally..on the National Library building, I liked the books!


So that was Day 1.. more excitement to come tmw..Watch for it!