On Sunday 18th September, the German Autofest was held on the lawns of the National Library in the ACT (Australian Capital Territory). This annual event displays cars, bikes and other vehicles from German manufacturers such as Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and of course Volkswagen.

Whilst the main event of the weekend is held on the Sunday, the Canberra Chapter of Club Vee Dub always put on an enjoyable cruise on the Saturday. For this reason I thought I'd make a weekend of it. Initially I was going to take my daughter Jemma but she had withdraw so in slotted Ethan, time for a boys weekend roadtrip!! This is the second roadtrip we've had on our own and many more are to come I'm sure.

 It's about a three hour drive to the ACT from Sydney, a nice easy cruise to suit most vehicles. If you want to see it done in 64 seconds check this out!

We got off to an early start on the Friday as I was lucky enough to be able to work at one of our ACT offices in Barton, just a stone's throw from Parliament House. A good tip for anyone thinking about taking their kids to work with them. Take more toys than you think will be necessary! Works a treat and keeps them occupied all day. Ethan enjoyed meeting everyone at the workplace and even more so going out for lunch at one of the nearby cafes!

Even though it was a full work day down there, it was great to catch up with some of my interstate colleagues and it also meant we didn't have to rush down later on the weekend. We settled in at the Hotel Heritage late Friday afternoon and Ethan was most excited to have his own bunk bed AND being allowed to sleep on the top bunk! Something that has never happened before when we've been away.

Friday night was the first of many eating indulgences over the weekend! With neither of us drinking, what better pastime than to sample the local eateries! We found a great little Vietnamese place in Manuka.

After rolling ourselves back into the Caddy, we headed back to the hotel and enjoyed a night of footy on the TV! What more could we ask for, no Home & Away, no X-Factor, no interuptions and listening to idle gossip! Just kicking back and watching NRL playoffs and some World Cup Rugby!!

Saturday morning started in the best way possible....the breakfast buffet!!! A cooked breakfast is something we rarely have at home so it was a real treat to work our way through the bain maries :)

We then headed off to Questacon. This is one of the "must see" attractions if you're down in Canberra. It's a Science and Technology Centre with particular focus towards a "hands-on" experience. There's lots of displays, talks and videos, interactive models etc and more than a couple of hours in there quickly slips by. Lots of fascinating things to see and learn. Take for example the robot on the right. It can perform over 100 actions which you can control from a nearby computer screen. In typical Ethan style, his only question about this marvel of technology was......"Can he fart?"

That's my boy!!!

We were having so much fun at Questacon that we nearly missed the start of the Saturday cruise so we rushed over to the meeting place at the Russell carpark.

As mentioned earlier, this cruise has been organised by the crew from the Canberra chapter of Club Vee Dub. There was a healthy turnout at the meeting place, I estimate close to 50 VWs of various air-cooled and water-cooled models.

The cruise is about an hour in length and the Canberra team have  a number of support crew in and around the cruise to sheperd everyone safely so no-one is lost in the plethora of roundabouts that make up the roadways of Canberra.

The cruise takes you past many of the well known attractions around Canberra and there's a good photo opportunity stop in one of the parklands. Eventually you wind up at the Canberra VW Centre. It's a good place to have a chinwag and check out the other VWs. Our generous hosts also provide a free bbq and drinks!! It makes for a great afternoon and I'd encourage anyone going to the Autofest to tag along on the cruise.

We left the workshop about 5.30pm and continued our boys own adventure. Back to the hotel for a quick change and then off to hit the town........well, we went to see Smurfs 3D at the Dendy Cinema much to Ethan's delight. Keen not to break the eatfest tradition, we stumbled upon Happy's Chinese Restaurant afterwards and proceeded to stuff ourselves silly once more. What better way to end the evening than back to the hotel for some more footy on the TV!

I thought we'd head off early on Sunday before the Autofest for a trip down memory lane so we jumped in the Caddy, set the GPS for Queanbeyan and went off to find the house I lived in I think when I was about 4 or 5 years old until I was about 6 or 7 when we moved to Sydney. My Dad was a bank auditor back then and we moved around a few times as his job required.

I'm not one of these people that remembers alot of detail about their early childhood but there was some recollection of the place when we found it. I remembered the sloping driveway up to the double garage, the verandah where Mum and I had lunches before I started school and Dad use to give us shandys sometimes on hot weekend afternoons! I also recognised the stone wall out the front which the milko caught me relieving myself on one day when he was doing his rounds!!

So after taking a few pics which I'll have to show Mum (76) and Dad (83), we headed off to the German Autofest.

Canberra certainly turned on the good weather and it was a cracker of a Sunday. I setup a bit of a sunshade with the Caddy and table and chairs at the back to relax for the day.

I can't put a figure on how many vehicles were actually at the show but there were plenty!! It's a nice relaxed atmosphere where you can wander around and check out all the makes and models.

There is no shortage of food and drink stands and if you're keen, you can go for a stroll over to the annual Floriade (flower display) which is always impressive and well worth a look if you get a chance.

Again it's a great opportunity to catch up with fellow Dubbers and especially interstate travellers who you mainly only get to chat to on the internet forums.

Each of the car clubs tend to have their own trophy awards for the day and I'm please to report that Leanne collected a trophy for her lowlight Bunty!!

You can check out more of my pictures from the weekend here.

As for the trip home, we cruised home with some of the Flat Four gang and let's just say we had a few rest stops!!

You may have heard the rumours but let me set the record straight about what happened.....on second thoughts, I think I'll save that story for another night around the campfire :)