Canberra: Australian War Memorial

Canberra is a city of museums. Good ones. Most of them free. Hands down, my favorite was the Australian War Memorial. It's a memorial and a museum, and one that you could literally spend all day walking around. They cover all conflicts in which Australia has been involved- to include the current conflicts. Of course, World War I was pivotal to Australia and Australian identity, and it warrants perhaps the greatest amount of displays. I could not take enough nor post enough pictures to give a good idea of just how phenomenal this memorial is- here's just a few.

This reflecting pool has an eternal flame at the far end.

This wall is just World War I casualties. It's a very long wall. World War II is on the other side of the reflecting pool. It seems to have just as many names.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The wreath that is mostly cropped out was laid by President Obama; I was trailing him by about 15 minutes.

In the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, there are stained glass windows on all four walls depicting servicemembers in various uniforms, and at the bottom of each figure is a quality that is revered.

Australia, apparently, reveres "coolness" in their troops. It made me laugh and didn't seem too out of character in this country.

I visited the war memorial on November 17th and, like I said, was only about 15 minutes behind the POTUS.

Elaborate/field rigged deception. Dripping water into the canteens would allow these rifles to fire long after the Australian soldiers had left their beachfront battle sites in Turkey.