Our trip to Canberra didn't start that well with us showing up to the caravan park that we had booked and finding out that there 4 star rating was more like a 1 1/2 star! The villa that we had booked because there wasn't any ensuite sites was dirty and stinky so we booked out and lost $20 in the process.
We headed off to the information centre and they didn't know much about any of the caravan parks but told us about the closest one to the city. They didn't have any caravan sites left so we booked a villa for 3 nights thinking that we would stay for 4 at the least.
Anyway our adventure around Canberra is a story that so many others can relate to - it was a circle adventure with road works!!! How on earth do they think that if a road runs in a circle and you have road works how does that road actually help anyone get to where they're going??? THEY DON'T!! You drive back around and then get directed towards an outer circle miles away. If your lucky you'll get to where you want to go or have to give up trying.
On the up side we did go to Cockington Gardens which is fantastic for kids. It's a miniature garden of famous iconic buildings and has a small train that goes around the gardens that Declan and Kira absolutely loved!!
We got to the War Memorial where Andrew got to walk around and see everything that he wanted to see while I did laps with the kids to keep them entertained. Declan wasn't too keen on all the exhibits with noise and the kids discovery centre was too noisy and the lighting freaked him out so that lasted 30 secs and we were out of there.
It's an amazing building and they have a new wing for the air crafts that is something to go have a look at. The honour wall in the courtyard is a spectacular sight and when you walk through the gift shop on the way out you can buy a poppy to place next to any family members that might have lost their life in war.
We also visited Black Mountain Telstra Tower and we were lucky enough to have good weather for a very nice view of Canberra. Freezing cold but worth the effort and only a small admission charge.
On our second day in Canberra we went to Questacon after the same drama of not being able to get there due to road works and roads being closed off for a fun run!!! After being redirected 4 times by detours and traffic controllers we were let through the stream of runners and permitted to cross the road to park in the Questacon car park that had been in our view at the last 3 turns.
However, Questacon was great the kids absolutely loved it! There was everything that they could touch and play with for the whole day and the presenter on Dinosaurs was so entertaining and so educational. Worth the whole day, and the kids didn't want to leave. Great value and we would do it again if it's still there on our return to Canberra in probably 20 years time!!!
We didn't have the best experience when we were trying to find somewhere to have dinner. There didn't seem to be any pubs in the whole place and when we did find one we were told it was steak night but there wasn't steak on the menu??!!??!! Try to work that one out!
We got stuck a lot of the time with road works and on one occasion we got stuck entering a shopping centre car park when it looked like a main road intersection, so we turned left thinking we would just be going around the block and ended up on the second level of the car park!! WHAT THE!!!!
Only in Canberra folks!!
Our advice - don't drive, don't try to eat out, don't buy beer - too expensive, don't buy groceries - too expensive, and they had imported strawberries from the USA!!! Not good for our nations capital.
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