Canberra to Sydney
I was interested to see Canberra, having lived in another planned capital. From my brief visit I’d say Canberra is working out better than Abuja, although they’ve had more time and resources to do it in Australia.
I stayed at the very nice — but very expensive — YHA Canberra City; it’s very handy for the shopping areas. I spent most of the day at the Australian War Memorial, which has some very impressive displays including a Japanese midget submarine and a Lancaster bomber. They also have excellent audio-visual presentations and little plays connected with exhibits. My only criticism would be that they downplay or ignore any criticism of the conflicts, especially the section on Iraq in the post-1945 galleries.
I’m now in Sydney after a lot of driving. I forgot how big Australia is and how many kilometres I’d have to cover. It doesn’t help that Aussie roads are generally poorly designed and road signs seldom provide the information you need when you need it. They have brand new freeways (110 km/h speed limit) with crossroads on them, 1930’s Autobahn-style! The local roads people seem to have ignored the experience gained in other countries over the last seventy years.