Canberra, 26 – 31 March 2010

We travelled to Canberra a bit early to camp at the showground and have a look around before the folk festival. Like most Aussies we have an ambivalent attitude towards Canberra – for a city the size of Wollongong it has superb infrastructure with magnificent public buildings and parks – on the other hand it has an artificial atmosphere and a feeling that a lot of money has been thrown at it without much success, with empty freeways going everywhere. Had a look around Canberra and lunched at the Sailing Club. The highlight of the trip was the visit to the National Gallery to see the Impressionist Exhibition. We were warned of long queues; however there were not too many people, especially late in the afternoon and it was possible to view the paintings without interruption. The paintings were amazing and gave us new insights into the history and variety of impressionist paintings.