Canberra 2017, March 12

The next morning my legs were still dead after a hard week of run training, and sitting in a car all day can't have helped either.

The first stop for the day was the AIS outside of the city. It would have been much harder to get around if I hadn't just purchased a GPS, as there are a series of highways, bridges, ramps, overpasses etc. to make sense of. We got the ninety minute public tour of the AIS, only there were no other people on the tour, which is always awkward...

Should have taken other photos...

The tour guides were alright, one guy was a runner and the other a swimmer. The tour started in this sports activity and memorabilia room, then walked around to see AIS arena, volleyball, gymnastics, weights, basketball and swimming I think. It was a bit disappointing there weren't any athletes around training in any of these places.

Back into the city for lunch then down to the Royal Australia Mint - since it was free admission like most places in the city. This was just a self guided tour of the factory and had a lot of coins on display. The gift shop had a lot of expensive collector coins for sale, but no good coin-related magnets.

Weird looking bus stops, looks like something from The Flintstones.

They only make coins, and nobody likes having too many coins.

Over to the Old Bus Depot Markets before it closed, navigating the nearly dead empty streets of South Canberra again, maybe due to the long weekend. I got some food from a couple of bakeries but the rest was all crafts and jewellery.

The DFO was not far away from the city but also surrounded by farm land which is a fair representation of ACT. They had a Nike store with many more shoe bargains than the Victoria stores ever have  - literally hundred of 12 and 12.5 but no size 13 anywhere. All I got was a discounted running shirt since I didn't want to come away empty handed.

Another drive across the city to Black Mountain. Given the race the next morning it didn't seem like a good idea to park at the bottom of the Botanical Gardens and hike to the top for a couple of hours. At the peak was the Telstra Tower observation deck - I didn't even get a shareholder discount for entry. The view over Canberra was good because the tower is a little bit outside the city, the strong winds outside were also good on a dry, hot day. The other bonus was finding a magnet on the way out.

The big city.