Arieh here. Here we are on the train from Sydney to Melbourne (12 hours) and we have just finished 7 loverly in Sydney hosted by Val's cousin Jim and parnter, Robyn. Jim, without consulting us, is travelling around the world in the opposite direction as we are. So, unfortunately, we only saw him in Vancouver in September. However, it meant we had Robyn all to ourselves and that was indeed fortunate for us. Robyn is a true bird lover--she feeds them real food, not just bird seed. Hence they come right up to her balcony and eat out of her hand.
We did NOT go sailing or to an ashram as Val did 30 years ago. On the other hand, we did sail the harbour many times on the ferry transport system (an example of one of the ferries is in the picture of the Sydney Opera house).
Before the Sydney bridge was completed in 1932, the ferries were the main means of getting from the downtown city of the North shore. Now the bridge, plus a tunnel completed in 1992, are the primary means (although the ferries and still very active, plentiful and punctual). We used them to get to Torango Zoo (which has a great view of Sydney) and Darling harbour (which is an alternative harbour to the original central one opened up in the last 20 or 30 years).
Sydney is quite the city. A beautiful defining bridge from 1932, the world-famous Opera house (picture) that cost 14 times the orignal cost estimate (and now they have budgeted $700 million for repairs and upgrades), an extensive ferry, rail, monorail and light rail transportation system, loads of museums (the Australian--with a lot on Aborigines; (the picture of the umbrella stand is what you do on a real RAINY day--wrap it in plastic)
the Powerhouse--with a pretty good design section; the National Maritime--with a de-commissioned diesel-powered Australian submarine and 2 replicas of ocean-sailing ships), beautiful beaches (which we did not get to) and nice walks in the city core and outside. Of course we ate well (both home-cooked by Robyn and out) and drank lots of lattes. Robyn joined us for a day bus trip to the Blue Mountains (west of Sydney) to see gads and gads of Eucalyptus (or Gum) trees--apparently there are over 750 different varieties. And I thought they were only used to dry up the swamps in Israel and sing songs about.
Australia has been suffering from a draught for the last 2 or 3 years and it has affected a lot of people. Farms closing, livestock being sold off, water restrictions in the city, etc. The weather in Sydney was weird (wait until you read about Melbourne's weather)--hot and humid the 1st day, cooling off at night and then quite cool the next two days. Then it repeated (or close to it), ending off with a beautiful day on Monday--a nice 22 degrees ABOVE zero. (As the train is travelling West and South of Sydney, it is hard to tell if what we are seeing is normal for early summer or because of the draught--dry earth, brown grasses and brownish trees, although not dead by any means.)
One noteworthy event was meeting up with someone I knew 27 years ago in Israel. A young lass (a very good friend of our Boston friend, Amy Willinsky) born is Israel who moved to Australia at age 12. Wouldn't really know she wasn't born in OZ. Lizi invited us for Shabbat dinner, where we met husband Gary and daughters Clare and Laura. Lots of action in the house. Shabbat tunes similar but not exact (they belong to one of the Progressive shuls in Sydney) and Lizi brought out a photo album (can't do THAT with digital) from 1979. I sure had a lot of hair back then. Also, one of the pictures was of David "Lawyer". It turns out he was the son of Judge Wapner (one of the orignal TV judge shows from the late 70s and early 80s. The next day we joined Lizi and Gary at shul (and after for lunch). Good service at shul--lots of singing and davening. They have a Cantorial Soloist. However, the Rabbi has a nice voice and did most of the vocals. The Cantor has a cushy job.
Finally, while we DID NOT spend $145 AUST. each to climb on top of the Harbour bridge
This next picture is one of the sights of Sydney. Couldn't resist the advertisement in the Dr. Scholls store--anything to make one's body parts feel better.
Finally, we stopped on our way down to Melbourne in a small city called Wagga Wagga (and pronounced Wogga). They had a beautiful city garden in the middle of town and in this garden, in addition to a memorial to all the soldiers who fought in all the wars from the Boer war onward, there was this sculpture honouring "Waltzing Matilda". This is the "swagman sitting by his billabong".
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