More Sydney Feb. 15

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Today Susan and Michael Moses spent the day taking us to places in Sydney which we had not seen and will not see with the group tour which we join tomorrow.  We began at the Jewish Museum:

Unfortunately, no photos are allowed inside.  The museum contains a wonderful history of the Jewish presence in Australia which dates back to the original prisoners exported from England.  The exhibit explains that history, including a wonderful and terrible listing of the people who came and the crimes of which they were convicted along with the sentences they received.  It was truly Dickensian.  14 years for receiving stolen property.  7 years for stealing a piece of clothing.  Multiple Les Miserables stories.

There is a very well-done Holocaust section and there are multiple personal stories.  One niche is devoted to the story of a young woman, with photos taken in Auschwitz.  She was there!  Now 91, she spends every Sunday sitting in front of the display about her, telling her story.  She is remarkable, and we listened to her tell her remarkable and tragic history.

From the Jewish Museum we went to the Sydney Fish Market.  This is truly astonishing; adjacent to the port where the fishing boats come in, it is enormous and jam-packed:

There is a large number of very big shops within the market.  Here’s the salmon section of one shop:

You can even buy just the heads and bones of whitefish—possibly for making gefilte fish?

We bought fish and chips and took our lunch outside where we ate in front of the harbor:

We then drove around an area called Balmain where there are wonderful homes with extensive iron work on porches and balconies very reminiscent of New Orleans.  Finally we wound up at QVB, the Queen Victoria Building, a fabulous example of re-purposing an historic building.  The outside is as it was when built in the 19^th c., but the inside has been transformed into trendy and expensive shops:

 So that was the wonderful day we had with Susan and Michael.  Tomorrow (Monday) we check out of our hotel and move to the group hotel where we’ll assemble for lunch.