Accommodation in Canberra

This post is a bit belated, but when we were in Canberra for the Australia Day long weekend, we once again stayed at the Quality Inn in the Dickson precinct.    The main appeal is that this location is on the same side of Canberra as the St Sava Monastery.   Even though the hotel doesn't look much from outside, it's very satisfactory, although a power fault of some sort one morning meant there was no hot water and the lifts weren't operating (we did get a bit of a discount off that night's accommodation).    But even though it's ultimately owned by the CFMEU, News Corp papers are free for the taking along with the Fairfax papers, at the reception desk.  

As to the ownership, I did pause to think about this, but then decided that I've never previously considered that as an issue when deciding where to stay (I wonder if we've ever stayed at a property owned by the mafia?)  Thus if the place ticks most of the other boxes, why should I change my approach now?   Anyway, all the electrical leads are "tagged".  Perhaps I ought to be re-assured by that?

In fact, my employer's clients are mostly in the corporate sector, yet the offices are in a building owned by Cbus.  So, if they're not worried about issues such as this, why should I be?

Dickson itself is sometimes promoted as a good place to eat. I think has more to do with quantity of restaurants rather than quality, and Asian restaurants of one variety or another are very well represented.    There's also a Peruvian restaurant, but we contented ourselves with looking at it from the outside.

Also in Canberra for the weekend were a number of bike riders.   I don't think they were an "outlaw" gang, but they were noisy (and intimidating), just the same!   We saw them arrive in groups of 15 - 20, but I was just finishing my visit to the National Archives when they all arrived at the nearby carpark - hundreds of them.   The Archives staff member who joined us watching them arrive kindly pointed out that there was a side exit, so a couple of us were able to leave without swimming against the tide of all the bikes.