Day 20: Fri 29 Dec - Canberra

14-24 deg C, sunny with an icy wind
Ride: 32km; total: 331km

First up this morning was to liaise with Bob for a bike ride. Off we went via the city to hook up with the Lake to ride clockwise. Not long after joining the lakeside path we stopped to admire a unveiled Thalidomide Memorial. As usual another beautiful memorial graces the Canberra landscape. 

The very important brekky/mornos followed at a very nice bakery cafe in Kingston was next. Mum and Dad joined us there which was a lovely happy get together.  

It was then onto the Australian National Museum, mainly to visit the Ancient Egyptian exhibition. We arrived about 10:45am, and the next available slot was 12:30pm. So we purchased our tickets then perused the rest of the museum exhibitions which are free. We finished that about 11:45am, so decided to have lunch at the museum cafeteria.  

The display area for the Egyptian exhibition is quite a small space for the number of exhibits and the amount of people they allow in at the same time. So everyone was jostling for space to see everything, a little too close for our liking in today's COVID 8th wave. Although we all enjoyed the visit, Wendy and Greg remember seeing most of the stuff before, at some other museum years ago (probably Sydney). The Mummy room was separate from the main exhibits and had about six mummies still wrapped in their shrouds. Very interesting to see how it is all done, however there could have been anything wrapped inside. Wendy and Bob were very patient and waited in a queue for 15 minutes. There was a sign at the door saying if you do not feel comfortable viewing human remains, you may not like to enter. But as it turned out there wasn't much to see anyway. Greg waited outside after he'd seen the other Egyptian stuff for Wendy to finish looking at all the displays.

Back on the bikes and we went back to the van park for a rest, shower, and change of clothes to meet Bob and Noeleene at an Indian restaurant about 500m from their place at 6pm. We intended to drive to their place and walk, however, the wind decided to become really nasty, so we decided to drive straight to the restaurant. The meals were typical of Indian restaurants in that they were large, and very tasty. Wendy came away with enough butter chicken to have the next day. After dinner we went back to B&N's for a post-dinner drink and a chat.

Back at the van, it wasn't long before we hit the sack after a full'ish day.







The National Museum













































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