Canberra

The Australian capital is just over 4 hours by train from Sydney. Uncharacteristically, I hadn't done any research before my visit today. The plan was to get off the train, pick up a map, and start walking around. I knew the population was just over 300,000 (similar to Nottingham), so it wouldn't be a metropolis like Sydney. Well, first of all it turns out that the train station, unlike in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, is not in the city centre at all, but several kilometres outside in a suburb! It also turns out that there is no tourist information centre there, nor a public transport information centre. All there was was NSW TrainLink, the train company I travelled on, and I find their staff a bit snooty. Must be government owned. I asked one of their employees how to get to town. "You mean the city", he sneered before giving me the answer I needed.

Pleasant surprise on the bus, though: they sold day tickets for $9 and no plastic card required! A single fare to town would have been $4.70, so that was a no-brainer. Funnily, the Kiwi capital also sold a paper day ticket for NZ$9.50, which converts to AU$8.45, i.e. very close in price. Closer than to Melbourne ($6.80, card $6) or Sydney ($15, card free). I think I like the antipodean capitals!

Canberra is indeed a rather small city, but sights are far between so you need transportation. There isn't much to see or do in the CBD. Even the visitors centre is 2 km north of the CBD! I took bus number 200 to reach their offices on 330 Northbourne Avenue, so already that day ticket was paying off. After I'd picked up a map and a list of which buses go to which sights, I returned to the CBD and had a very nice Thai lunch at Two Sisters. Two curries with rice for $10!

With a full tummy, I took bus 2 to the National Library and walked around for a bit between the official buildings. I then walked up to the Old Parliament and finally the New Parliament, before returning to town on bus 1, which goes all the way up to Capital Hill (but only runs on weekdays). Returning to town, I found a bus number 81 which was called "Tourist Loop", and that sounded just right for me. It went out to the Aquarium/Zoo, via the Arboretum, Black Mountain, Botanic Garden, and back to town. You get really nice views along the lake on the way out, or from Dairy Farmer Hill in the Arboretum. From the top of Black Mountain, the view is obscured by trees, so you have to pay to go up the Telstra Tower to see anything.

I finished off my visit with a free pancake at the Pancake Parlour (thanks to a brochure I picked up at the railway station) and a cappuccino, and then caught bus 80 back to the station.

There is a hop-on, hop-off bus too, but at $30 for a day ticket, it's not very good value compared to the Action buses. If you, unlike me, do some research before your visit, you can see the same sights and much more using the city buses at a third of that price.

My only criticism of the public transport is that many routes only run once an hour, and some of the buses seem to be begging for retirement. The trains running Sydney-Canberra also seem to be on their last legs. At every bend, the undercarriage was creaking and groaning to be put out of its misery. At times, it sounded like a conversation between the Clangers.