We arrived in Sydney on Tuesday evening after what felt a very easy trip. Rob was there to pick us up and drive us three hours south to Canberra where he and Helen currently live as Helen is teaching in a Montessori school here.
Rob was our tour guide yesterday and we started by going up Black Mountain to the Telstra Tower. This is a landmark visible by all of the city and it gave us an excellent overview of Canberra and the ACT. It is a well laid out city with easy access to all parts of the city via its well designed arterial roads. The suburbs are all spread out and it feels more like a provincial town than a capital city with its population of about 300 000. 
Next stop on the tour was Parliament House, and later in the day we were to hear that it was an historic one for the Australian Government, with the overthrow of Julia Gillard the current prime minister. When we arrived it was obvious it was a busy day. We first had difficultly finding a park and then we had to queue to get through security (unheard of by our host). We had a good look around the building in which no expense seems to have been spared when it was built. We ventured out onto the roof top for a look and a close up view of the flagpole. From here there is a panoramic view along an avenue to the original Parliament House and in the distance the War Memorial.
We finished the day with some shopping for a few essentials like a local SIM card for our phone, and then enjoyed a Vietnamese meal at a local restaurant. All in all a good first day.
Um. Not to be a conspiracy theorist or anything, but this is now the second government 'coup' that's happened when you were visiting the houses of parliament. Remember Geoffry Palmer in NZ?? And now Gillard. If you fancy a visit to Britain, we could use a new PM - I will happily pay for your visit to Westminster if this is going to be the end result!
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