Samstag, 17. Januar 2015

#58 Our trip to Canberra – a great holiday! (2.1.-9.1)


Hey Guys,

This ost is about the last week – of course – but also about our Canberra trip, because we actually spent the whole last week on the way to Canberra or in Canberra, Australia's Capital.
Where we went to, what we did and what we've seen – all this is going to be explained here and now :) and of course with heaps of photos :)

Because this post this huge and you may not have time to read it all at once, I want to say thank you to my Aussie Family at first, for this holiday because this trip was amazing! Thank you so much!

I am going to post a map of our trip as well :)

our trip :)
Fr, January 2nd and a little bit of Saturday - Robertson
We left on Friday at about 1.30 pm, after we took the the dogs to the Vet, where they are going to stay until we come back next Friday. The vet has a separate place where they care for dogs and look after them while you are away. On the way we visited Nan for maybe half an hour, got our Lunch – a Cheesemite Scroll, which I get to like slowly :) - and started our trip. 
Our first destination was Robertson in the Southern Highlands, where we stayed overnight at some friends house – they were soo nice! 
They had prepared a great 3 course dinner for us – first Cheese and bikkies  then some prawns – yum! - then BBQ of course with different salads and for dessert Cheese cake. Wait, that is 4 course!! Delicious!

All the friends together for dinner :)
We went to bed at around 10 o clock, which was a little bit late, because next morning we were a little bit tired when we go up at 6.30am. Why so early?
Michelle, their daughter, works at a dairy in the holidays and she said that we could come to see how a dairy works. And so went there at around a quarter to 7 in the morning. It was beautiful! David and Vicky drove me and Em to this place – it was a small dairy, they had about 170 cows. But it was very interesting to see how the machine works and yeah. 
On the way home we stopped at the rainforest which they called a 'Nature Trail' and walked through - small rainforest, which the council left there to show visitors how Robertson looked like before it was built on.

After our little trip, David showed us all his plants he had in the garden and I took some photos :)



:)
:)

The view is amazing!

And in the morning :))



And then we had breakfast- bbq of course, that means Bacon and egg. :) This day was soo hot, we had about 27 degrees in the MORNING!! 


They had also some animals as it is common when you live in the country. They had one guinea pig, 2 dogs, 3 chickens, some fish and one cat. And two of the chickens were Emily's chickens some years ago, but then they decided not to keep them and gave them to David and Vicky.

It was great, because I met my family's great friends, but could also see the Australian's Country side :) Downtown Robertson ;)


Map again 
Sa, January 3rd Kiama and Ulladulla

We had to leave at about 11 am, to continue our trip. 

Very nice, incredible view!
the great, great view!!

Our next stop was at lunchtime at Kiama, where we met other friends – Gale and Terry – and had a delicious lunch next to the sea.

Yum, isn't it?
There were also 2 blowholes, where I took some photos of course :) Looks nice, doesn't it?

little Blowhole :)
big blowhole in the background :)
<3


After this break we went back in the car and drove to Ulla Dulla, a little town next to the beach. :) Ulla Dulla is about 230km south from Sydney. It is a very cute and nice town and Ulla Dulla means “safe harbor " in Aboriginal language. This is very true, because there is a Harbour, which we could see from our Hotel room. After arriving at about 3.30, we put all our luggage in our room – so much – and went to the shops. We forgot some things so we had buy them – sunscreen, a toothbrush for me (I don't know why I forgot my toothbrush) and some tablets against headache for Robyn. On the way to the shops we discovered a Saltwater-Pool, a Pool next to beach or in the sea, which uses the seawater – cool!
We went back, got changed in our swimmers and lets go swimming! :)

<3
We went to the Bowling Club in Ulla Dulla for dinner, which was great! We had a great big dinner, which was the perfect start for the holidays! We also played a game, which they have in all the Clubs, I forgot the name, but a bit similar to Lotto. You choose an amount of numbers from 1 to 80 and I think each round 20 random numbers are chosen and If you get 4 or more right, you win some money. We did not win anything unfortunately, but we had fun :)

I don't know if I have explained the “clubs” before, but it is a big thing over here. You have to wear nice clothes like for examle a dress or long pants and you are not allowed to wear thongs and men are not allowed to wear open shoes. Adults also have to show and scan their ID card. Yep, it is very safe, but on the other side very good!!
And for the food you go the counter to order and then tjhere are 2 different possibilities to get the food. The first is you get a number and they bring the food or the second one is you get a buzzer and then you go and pick your food up. And everywhere, in all the restaurants, ou get free water – perfect for me! :)

I really liked Ulla Dulla!!

Map again

So, January 4th Jindabyne

We left Ulla Dulla at about 8.30 in the morning without breakfast and stopped at Maccas around 10 min later. I did not feel like eating Maccas for breakfast, so I took my oats in and ordered some milk and had a great breakfast. :) Oats with pear and peppermint tea – yum! :) I do know I am weird sometimes. ;)
We drove about 6 hours until we came to Jindabyne our next Stop until tomorrow.
We stopped for Lunch and went to the Bega Cheese factory, a huge Cheese factory!! We could try different cheese and I had a mini hawei Pizza for lunch.

Bega Cow :)
Jindabyne is in the Snowy mountains and in winter a great place to stay when you go skiing – even though you still have to drive around 20 min to the ski trails. We put all our luggage again in our room – It was a great room! Em and I we had our beds upstairs, that was great! It was a big room, big for tall, so Greg and Robyn had their bed at the same “floor” as our little kitchen and the bathroom and then upstairs Em and me :) Cool! And we also had a great view from our little apartment – the lake looks great doesn’t it?

me and em and lake Jindabyne :)
Robyn was not feeling very good, so she stayed to relax and Greg, Em and me we went for a walk to discover Jindabyne :) We went to the little Shopping Area – but is was pretty much empty because all the Ski and Snowboard hire shops were closed – of course! But it is still so weird to see skiing stuff in Australia – which is the hot country with beaches and surfing and rainforest, but it is still hard to believe that they have snow in winter. But that shows how many things you can do here in Australia, a country that offers everything!


View from our Hotel :)

For Dinner we went to the Restaurant downstairs – which was very good! :)
And then we had some fun taking selfies :))


having fun, haha :)
hhahaah :)


Mo, January 5th Mount Kosciuszko and Canberra
We had Breakfast included here in Jindabyne and it was great! It was a buffet and I LOVE buffet!!!! :)) So we had breakfast and then we left Jindabyne again. We then drove to the Kosciuszko National Park to see Mount Kosciuszko, which is the highest mountain in Australia – 2228m high ;)

FOTO MOUNT HIGH

It is incredible, I cant believe I saw Australia's highest mountain – just great! And we also were pretty close to the boarder to Victoria about 25 km, but we did not go. But still, pretty cool! :)
We also stopped at Thredbo to see the chairlifts and Skitrails and take some photos. :) Great! I took my Australian Flag with me – of course and got a great photo!

FOTO FLAG

Em and me :)

After this we continued our trip and our destination today was Canberra – Australia's Capital and it is also not NSW anymore, it is ACT (Australian Capital Territory).

We arrived at about 2.30 in Canberra and It was amazing! We could see the new Parliament house and the big captain Cook Fountain from far away and I just could not believe we were in Canberra!!! :) Canberra is not at the coast it is more in the south west, so IN the country and you could see how the trees and grass was a bit dryer and country :)

We drove around a little bit in Canberra to see the Parliament house and the lake other things and then we went to our hotel or apartment. 
We stayed in a huge building which had 8 floors and lots of apartments. We had a big kitchen, 2 bathrooms, 2 rooms (Em and me and greg and Robyn), a loving room and a balcony, great! :)

Unfortunately the fridge did not work that good and the carpet was a bit dirty so we changed room, but I still really liked it, and the new room was even better :) Our first room was on the second floor, the new one on the first floor – the same floor as the pool :)

After arriving and bringing all our luggage in, we went down stairs to get some information brochures, we had sooo many, hahha!!!
A little bit later we left our apartment and went for a walk to the big shopping centre of canberra, which was only 10 min away, perfect. We bought some groceries, especially food, okay lots of food, hahah :) 
Unfortunately it was raining really heavy when we finished and so Greg went back to get the car and picked us up.

We had dinner at home to relax a little bit and started watching a movie, princess diary, which is really good! We finished it in the next couple of days and also watched the second one :)

Map again
Tu, January 6th

We got up at around 8am today and after breakfast our first destination was the parliament house. This is incredible!! To go in you have to pass a control similar to the ones at the airport and our bags were checked as well.
The parliament house is massive! A Heaps bigger than the one in Berlin, heaps, heaps HEAPS!! And soo modern, so nice :) And because Em went there in June she knew a lot and was our tour guide – great job Em ! :)

We went to the house of representative and senat as well and got some selfies and “normal” photos, haha :)

Selfiee :)






the great hall :)
Later we went to the roof as well and had a great view to the War memorial!



WOW! It is soo great!

i had to take a photo with my aussi flag of course :)
We had lunch in the canteen there, which was reall, really good! I had a delicious sweet potato and normal potato salad :)

:) Home! :)
After the parliament house we went for a drive to the German Embassy and then to Questacon, which is a great Science Museum a little bit similar to the “Universum” in Bremen. We spent about 2.5 hours there but we could have spend lot more time! :) They had a 6m free fall slide, which I did, haha it was awesome! :)))

We went to a Jamie Oliver Restaurant for dinner – he is a popular cook over here and had some italian food :)


We, January 7th
We got up at around 8 today in the morning but unfortunately Robyn was feeling very very bad, she had a bad headache and so.. So we decided it would be better for her to stay home, and we go on or own. It was sad to leave her at home and not go all together but it was the best for her. :)

We, Greg, Emily and me, went to the Mint first, it is there where the money, I think just the coins are made. It was great to see how all the machines work and see the process it takes until a coin is done :) 

MINT

We bought a little 2015 coins as a memory, it was a special coin, because it had 100 Years ANZAC on the back :)

After this we went on a drive through Canberra to find the Peruvian Embassy. We were driving around and around and could not find it! But then in the end we found ich and I could take a photo :) Look Mami, Peru :))

And we also drive around to some lookouts - great view over canberra! 

lookout :)
We then went to the National Museum of Australia, which was very modern and good! We had a movie to start and the seats were moving around, which was really cool! :)

we are soo naughty, hahah :)

After this we went back home to see how Robyn was feeling and happily she was feeling better, yeah!!

We then decided to go to the Telstra Tower. The Telstra Tower is the highest building I think in Canberra, okay it is on the black mountain, so not directly in Canberra, but yeah.. Doesn't matter! ;)

The view was great from there and we could see whole Canberra, great! :) It was 68 m high, I think :)

the view from that tower was great!
The Telstra Tower ;)
We went home then and decided that we were to tired to go out for dinner and we had just discovered a pizza pick up place and so Greg and me went there to get some Pizza and Garlic Bread. We got a Cheese Pizza for Em and a Prawns Pizza for us three, yum! :)

After dinner we finished watching the Princess diaries :)

Thu, January 8th
This was our last full day in Canberra today! And so as you can maybe imagine it was a very full day :) We had breakfast and then we left all together today! Yeah, Robyn was feeling a lot better! 

We first went to AIS (the Australian Institute of Sport), which was great and we had an excellent tour! It is an Sport institute where lots of sportsmen and -women train for Olympic games and other international and national competitions :)

Our guide was a netball player :)

We first went to a hall where we could try all different sports on videogame machines but it was actually really fun! We had rowing, bike racing, Skiing, cricket, AFL and lots more! :)

rowing :)
:)

After this we went outside to see all the buildings where the sportsmen and women train. That was awesome! We also saw some girls training in the gymnastic building, wich was soo good!



After the AIS we went to Cockington Green Garden, which is a Miniature Garden exposition and is great! I reall, really liked them! They had lots of cute little houses, most of them from Britain and they where 1:12 (their scale)
real house
small house :)


It looked sooooo nice!
And they also had a international section which houses and building and landmarks from 43 countries – and also Peru! :) They had Macchu Picchu from Peru, and its scale was 1:100 :)
:) <3
My second favourite was an Ukraine building – very, very nice!

And also the golden gate Bridge :)
Looks amazing doesn't it?

Just before we had lunch we went on a little train, to see it all again :)
We made some sandwiches, which we ate then there in the picknick area and relaxed a bit :)

having lunch :)

After this wen went to the War Memorial, which was just amazing!! It is a museum about the wars Australia participated in and all the Story why, what happened, the impact.. but it is soo interesting and I had a couple of tears in my eyes because it was just so good! And sad.. Just so “berürend”.


the wall full with poppies - to remember the  people who died in the wars - we found some crellins! 

:)) So beautiful!
the view from the war memorial to the parliament house. :)
the view to the war memorial from the Parliament house - amazing isn't it?

We did not have a tour but we saw a group people who had at our just sneaked in, haha. The tour was great but! :)

We also went to the Last Post Ceremony at 5 to5pm, which was great!

After this we were a bit tired also because it was very hot and so we relaxed a bit at home, we had a really, really busy day today!

But because it was our last day as well – unfortunately – we decided to go out for dinner. :) Which was really good and we also had some gelato again :)

Last dinner in Canberra :'((



Back at home Em and I watched the second Princess diaries :)


Fr, January 9th
We packed our suitcases and all our food and left the apartment just before 10am, perfect. We did not do anything else in Canberra, so we went straight home. We had great 5 days in Canberra and also an amazing trip to Canberra! I have seen and learnt so much, incredible things in museums and just from looking at everything! It was great, I loved it!

We only drove about 3.5 hours home, pretty quick if you compare it to the way to Canberra, but we did not go straight to Canberra, we went to lots of great places ;) But stil, Greg is a great driver!
Em got a 5 Seconds of Summer CD for Christmas which we were listening to a lot :) And I am getting better and better in song names, haha :)

When we arrived at home, we picked up our two doggies, who were really happy to see us and relaxed a little bit, unpacking our things and yeah!

We had Fish and Chips for dinner, of course, yum!! :)


So, that is my huge, big, long post about our holiday in Canberra and the trip to Canberra.

It was just amazing, great, fantastic and perfect!
I want to thank you my family soo much -Greg, Robyn and Emily – for taking me to Canberra and showing me around Australia's Capital, which is a great City! 
We have soo much, almost everything, that is so incredible!
Thank youu soo much!

I hope you could finish reading this post, I know it is very long! But we did so much and I could no stop writing :)
And if you finished - well done! :)
Map again

Love you all and I hope you had a great week as well :)


Love, Sophi

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