Saturday 14 July 2018

CAPITAL BOUND -part 1 Canberra series


Hello everyone. Hubby, Acerules and I have just returned from a trip to our national capital, Canberra. We were away a week. A friend fed and walked our animals. 


We took alot of buses, including one up to Thredbo for a couple of hours for Acerules to see snow for the first time, and one overnight to go from Canberra to Melbourne. I took many photos, so here are a series of posts that are more like  photo essays, hope you enjoy them. 


Acerules describes to me a walk she and her father had just done at a wildlife reserve in Bairnsdale, where we stopped for the night on the way, in a motel. 

All photos are copyright Runningonempty.


While they were gone I enjoyed a Vinnies thrift shop (called op shop here) next door run by St Vincent de Paul, a charity. I bought a hot pink puffer jacket for me to wear at the snow, plus a new looking hot food thermos flask,  melamine cups to use with it, a Pyrex dish for microwave cooking and candle for a tablescape I was planning for Canberra. 


Bairnsdale railway station before leaving by coach the next day:



Looking towards Bairnsdale from the railway, showing the water tower on the left. 


The vestibule of the toilets has an open fireplace, ceiling rose and other antique features:








At a rest stop on the way, below. Note, Acerules took so many clothes along that we had more baggage than any other passengers! We had two large rucksacks, two large suitcases, and three carryon bags, minimum. It’s good that her father is strong! Ace did carry her own rucksack though. 




On arrival at our hotel, The Quality Hotel Dickson , also known as The Tradies, as it adjoins The Tradies club, we found our room was off an atrium bar with a captive tram! Looking down from outside our room:





Acerules does cartwheels in our hotelroom:







We had a Queen bed for hubby and I, and a single bed for Ace. We chose this hotel partly because of the generous storage, there were drawers, cupboards, and a double mirrored wardrobe. We did not have to live out of a suitcase. There was a microwave for me to cook evening meals (Ace helped) and a laundry room. We shopped for food at the nearby supermarket. 


Photos below are inside the hotel, it is huge, one of the stair landings:





The staff were always very helpful:

























Function rooms:









Looking up to our room:



Wandering around the Tradies club downstairs one afternoon, but at night all these areas were full of people, even on a Tuesday:








































On our last morning Acerules and I got a soft drink (soda)here:













Our last night we had drinks on these couches:



















The hotel foyer:


Acerules makes us all a hot drink:








Ace messaging her friends:





Stay tuned for the next in this series, our first excursion in Canberra. 



























4 comments:

Jeanie said...

What fun, Cath. I'll definitely look forward to more posts. The hotel is quite lovely and I'm guessing this was just the first day of a wonderful time.

Running on empty said...

Indeed it was, Jeanie, the next post is already up!

Pam Richardson said...

What a lovely hotel, Cath! Your trip was off to a good start!

Running on empty said...

Hi, Pam, we nearly ended up in a hotel nearer the civic Center of the city, which was more traditional in style. I tried to get a good price from them and failed, so we ended up in the suburbs. It worked out well when we went to an attraction further out, as it was closer, also the bus trips into the city were reduced in price when we figured out to get a daily ticket, saved $7 au a day. They were also quite quick as long as you didn’t encounter road works.