Day 34 - Sydney Forks to Sydney

16.3 km - Total so far 2,235.10 km 

RWGPS: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/15528086
Relive: https://www.relive.cc/view/g12460362433

Today our destination was Sydney, a grueling ten kilometers away. The plan was to visit the information centre and then head to our hotel. At the information centre, we discovered that the tourist season in Cape Breton starts on July 01st (and 30 minutes earlier in Newfoundland). Apparently most museums and such places are open on Thursday's or when there is a cruise ship anchored. Today was Friday and no cruise ship to be seen.

Some of our neighbours at the cottage yesterday

We found the Jost House to be opened. The house (circa 1786) is one of the oldest occupied house in Sydney. We had one guide to show us around the basement (where servants lived), another guide for the main floor and we got to visit the top floor on our own. Our main floor guide was a lady (an Acadian with a most charming accent) from Chéticamp, Cape Breton.

You can clearly see over the door that the house has settled a
bit in 230 years

With our tourist map in hand, we did the prescribed walking tour. It took us about 30 minutes given that downtown Sydney is not very big. We did find some interesting things as shown below.

There is a designated bike lane on George St. It is well marked
and when it "ENDS" all concerned are well informed. Would be nice
 if all cities and towns in Canada did the same.

Hélène enjoying an Ethiopian coffee on a terrace. To the right is
the hotel we stayed in when we were last here in 2012

The new YMCA on Charlotte Street. The only striking new building
that really stands out. We had a quick look inside and it was pretty impressive.

Difficult to resist going into a store with a display like that.
Note the multicoloured tan on the lady in the sandals

Always strive to have a message that is well expressed and easy
to understand, and check the spelling once in a while

Two of the merchant seamen from the Merchant Mariner monument in Sydney Harbour. When you look at the seaman in the water you can feel the fear in his eyes and the relief at being pulled onto the raft.

The girl, the sailboat and the fiddle

The artist that built the fiddle referred to the scroll (the very top of the instrument) as being the toughest part to build. The fiddle weighs ten tons, yet just appears to float

This is what happens when you use the timer on the camera and not the remote control you carried for 2,200 + kilometres but left at the hotel

Lighthouse in the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion where you
can view a 15 minute video on fiddling 

Laying of the hands did not fix our radio so we are now trying to
dry it using rice as suggested by our friend André. We will keep you posted

We made a good decision to spend the day in Sydney and wait for tomorrow evening to sail to Newfoundland. This was confirmed when we had a look at the weather forecast for Port-aux-Basques, Nfld for tomorrow. See below:

Sat, 24 Jun	Rain at times heavy. Fog patches. Amount 30 mm except 50 mm in areas of heaviest rain. Wind south 30 km/h gusting to 50 except gusting to 80 in the Wreckhouse area in the morning. High 12 except 17 north of Cape Ray.
Night	Rain changing to drizzle in the evening. Fog patches. Amount 2 to 4 mm. Wind southwest 30 km/h gusting to 50 becoming west 20 gusting to 40 near midnight. Low 10

Tomorrow we head to Sydney North to catch the ferry that sails at 23:45 and we should be at Port-aux-Basques by 8:30 Sunday morning.

10.13 miles - Total so far 1,388.82 miles