weekend walks: 3 museums of sydney
We went for a completely different type of walk this weekend – we visited three museums in Sydney that we hadn’t been to in a while.
Stop 1 – Sydney Jewish Museum
On the first Sunday of every month, entrance is free! So we were lucky to be there on June 1 🙂 There was an Anne Frank exhibit on, which reminded us of our time in Amsterdam visiting Anne Frank’s House. Walking through the museum is simply so moving, such a harsh reminder of the atrocities of the Holocaust and how war is good for no one.
Stop 2 – Art Gallery NSW
Entrance is always free except if you want to see the special exhibits and it is quite easy to lose a few hours wondering around in there. Our favourite rooms are the European art rooms on the main entrance level, makes us excited to be returning to Europe in July to explore the art galleries there once more 🙂
Stop 3 – Government House via Royal Botanical Gardens
It is one of the living museums of Sydney and a guided tour of the inside is available on Fridays through Sundays. The entrance is free and the tour guides are volunteers who share so much interesting information. We learnt about Government House and facts of the history of Sydney that we hadn’t (or don’t recall) learning at school!
It was a side of Sydney that we figured is listed in “Travel Guides” that we ourselves haven’t truly seen. So we played “tourists” in our own city. We were not disappointed!
To add to the distance we walked, we stumbled across the Wishing Tree in the Botanical Gardens. We made our wish and being superstitious we completed the ritual, getting ourselves dizzy circling the tree 🙂
wise monkeys abroad 
June 11, 2014 at 12:11 am
Doesn’t Sydney have an amazing stuff to do?! I loved it there! On Wednesday night the Art Gallery of NSW stays open late and has special presentations and exhibits – as well as local wine!
June 11, 2014 at 6:06 am
Yep! You are spot on but you see, we’ve always looked at Sydney as ‘home’ & never really looked at it from the eyes of a traveller – at least not until recently. And now we see Sydney in a different light 🙂
June 10, 2014 at 3:17 pm
A very nice post. The art gallery and Government House look like just the place I would go to on a visit, and yes, it’s nice to go on a tour around our own cities. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
June 10, 2014 at 3:40 pm
Thanks 🙂 It’s funny because those places are places when we travel we would like to visit yet have never seen them in our own city 🙂
June 6, 2014 at 11:18 pm
Thank you for the tour, wonderful photos! Loved the trees at the garden and the architecture of Government House.
June 7, 2014 at 7:26 am
Thank you 🙂
June 3, 2014 at 9:35 pm
Three interesting places to add to the list for the next time we visit Sydney. I think we’re all the same when it comes to our own backyard. We don’t visit often enough.
June 3, 2014 at 9:41 pm
Why do we take the closeness for granted? We have seen more of overseas than we have of Sydney, let alone Australia!
The weekend walks have been the best thing we did to appreciate our home city so much more! It has so much to offer and we keep finding more little treasures – or is it just that we are looking at it through more traveller and exploratory eyes?! 🙂
June 4, 2014 at 6:07 am
We decided when we first started travelling again to have an overseas trip one year and an Australian one the following year and that’s been our pattern since 2008. It’s worked well. We also have a caravan so we do shorter trips in it as well. Our next adventure is three weeks in WA in July. I can’t wait!
I think when we are home, it’s just easy to stay home, especially when we work full time. All I want to do on the weekends is not get in the car.
June 4, 2014 at 6:41 am
Another similarity!!! Back in 2006, that was our pact. One overseas trip one year followed by one “domestic” trip the next and so forth…. but that lasted all but two years and now we have two trips a year sometimes seems to be more time overseas than in Australia!
After the trip this year, think we will have to financially stick to “driving” holidays for a bit….
June 4, 2014 at 6:44 am
Well, if we count our shorter jaunts in the caravan we have more than one too, but we do one big trip every year. Although, we did do an extra holiday, to New Zealand in January last year for our 30th wedding anniversary. When our daughter was living in Sydney we went there a bit too, and we have family living in Victoria, so it does seem like we have done lots.
June 4, 2014 at 6:51 am
That’s awesome!!!! Sounds like we need to get ourselves a caravan 🙂
June 4, 2014 at 6:38 pm
Caravanning isn’t for everyone, but we enjoy the flexibility. It means we can have more holidays for less and that we love!
June 3, 2014 at 5:32 pm
I never got too much into museums however botanical gardens are always great! So I know already what to visit there at least 🙂
June 3, 2014 at 6:06 pm
Yeh – when we were in Europe in 2006, we weren’t into museums or art galleries but maybe now we are older, we see life through different eyes 😉
Yes, the botanical gardens are really lovely! If you like outdoors, you will enjoy Australia a lot 🙂
June 4, 2014 at 6:20 am
Let’s see when I will start to enjoy art. I am all into historical stuff and wonderful gardens etc but art just scares me right off
June 4, 2014 at 6:38 am
Modern art scares us off 🙂 But not classical art. Think the appreciation grew a little from the historical stuff for us…. maybe on day 😉 We too do prefer nature and history more so though!
June 3, 2014 at 3:05 am
You two sure do keep busy… don’t know how you pack so much into one day!
Best wishes for coming travels ❤
June 3, 2014 at 5:40 am
Thanks Jane! We had an early start and we walked a lot – had to start training for our travels 😉
June 3, 2014 at 1:41 am
Next… Melbourne museums???? 😉 Whats the content like in the museums? What appeals? What doesn’t? What’s odd?
LOL sorry I sound like a bloody journalist, nice job!
June 3, 2014 at 5:43 am
Good questions…. Melbourne museums next time we are there 😉
We didn’t find anything ‘odd’ but we certainly are not fans of modern art when it comes to art galleries! Anything with a little history always appeals and fascinates us!
Thanks for the prompts 🙂