The exhibition of French toy boats from 1850 - 1950 was fantastic, much larger than I imagined. The toys ranged from tiny little tin wind up boats to big elegant wood and brass steam driven models. The exhibition was well laid out, even if a couple of the 'interactive' displays were a bit lame. I guess making museum displays able to interact with patrons is the big thing in design these days, but FYI if you push a button you expect it to do more than just change the colour of the light behind the display.
I'm really impressed with the museum in general, they have a good mix of high and low culture in the permanent displays and it's not just boats. There are displays about swimming and surf culture as well. I took a shine to this Beer Can Regatta boat (above), which celebrates one of the more odd and very Australian events on the maritime calendar!
If you're out on the water, be sun smart and wear a hat.
Sometimes the spirit of Aussie ingenuity makes you proud to be an Australian. This little item was part of the surf culture display, and if you're saying to yourself "Hang on a sec, that looks like..."
...you'd be right!
After we wandered around the museum and had a look at the other exhibits I was interested in (the pet pictures were particularly cute!) we headed outside and had a look at the various boats moored outside the museum as a permanent exhibit. Everything from a tiny boat that brought refugees to Australia from Vietnam, to the last working steam tug boat on Sydney Harbour. Fabulous! One of the best things about all this, is that it's basically in the heart of the city. You can look past the tall ship masts of the replica of Captain Cook's "Endeavour" to the high rises of the city skyline.
It reminds me once again how much I love this city!
[Don't take my word for it, check out James's take on the afternoon.]
11 comments:
i hope someday to come visit this marvelous city of yours.
It's a pretty cool place ur-spo!
Me, too! I flirted shamelessly with an adorable Aussie waif at lunch today (this place is awash in that intoxicating accent!). I opened with "we LOVE Sydneysiders" after seeing her name tag and that's all she needed. She practically invited me to stay with her when I visit. (I told her I had other accomodations.)(And, yes, I'm a little martini drunk right now and we could do all manner of things if you were here with me)(but probably not take me to that boat museum...although it sounds lovely)
We love the boat museum. The bong sort of saves it a bit your eyes, right?
Martini drunk in Canada. (!) Sounds like a David Sedaris book.
What is it about this place?
BONG WATER!
Hey, you're so cute when you're dratini munk.... muntini drank...
Am loving the new header. The font reminds me of the ad campaign that metlink is running here in Melbourne to try and minimise fare evasion on our public transport system (karmacentral.com.au).
Thanks Ad Rad!
The font is some sort of faux-Elvish font ("Fanfoey" or some such odd name) that seemed to suit the subject matter I thought. (The photo behind it is of a path through forrest that I trod every day when I was on a meditation retreat. I was going for a whole "The Road Goes Ever On And On" Tolkein-geek refernce.)
Maybe Metlink is run by Elves?
Everywhere I go these days I find bongs. I wonder what the Universe is trying to tell me?
It looks like you had quite a bit of fun at the museum. I'm so glad I joined Ravelry, I'm finding so many great blog reads!
Hey knitguyla, yay! Glad you stopped by! I haven't blogged about knitting much lately, but I'm just about to cast off a scarf I've been working on forever, so I'll post a pic of that when it's done. These bitches give me grief about the knitting sometimes, so always nice to have another guy knitter in the house.
For some reason the phrase "Used for smoking drugs..." in the description of the bong just makes me giggle...
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