Canberra days 2 and 3 and HOME.

I promise to post photos tomorrow, as rather tired tonight and will not do a good job explaining and describing.

Day 2 we went to the Turner to Monet exhibition which was even more exciting and beautiful than I expected. Despite the crowds I did more than one circuit of the 5 exhibition rooms. The Van Gogh' painting Tree trunks in the grass was my favourite

Van_Gogh_Tree-trunks-in-the-grass

It must be everyon'e favourite as the poster they were selling of it has just sold out of its 3rd reprint and so I wasn't able to get one. They gave me a card so I can call the National Gallery next week and arrange for them to post me when when the reprint arrives.The exhibition is on until June and over 100,000 people have viewed it so far. 

I don't usually buy the exhibition catalogue as too often they are badly complied and have too many black and white photographs  but this one had colour plates of all the photographs and at just $35 was worth the money. So one made it into the bottom of our suitcase.

After that  we went on a tour of Old Parliament house. I have some great stories to go with some of the photographs and will get that together tomorrow. The also had an exhibition about the wives of all the Prime Ministers. There is actually a huge quilt that had been made with a panel representing each wife up to Margaret Whitlam (Gough Whitlam was PM until 1975)

The hotel where we stayed was very 1930s elegance with an elegant dining room and a lounge where every time I entered it I expected to see Miss Marple (Agatha Christie) sitting with a sherry while knitting and solving the latest murder in the kitchen. It was great. It once was the "dormintory" for the parliament - many of the parliamentarians would stay there when parliament was sitting and they were in town.

Today we went to the National Museum. The building is quite spectacular  but I thought its displays rather light on.

More details tomorrow - now I need sleep. Fun is exhausting!