Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada

This morning we had a walking tour of Sydney.  It's a pretty small town so it was an easy walk.  Our stops included the Cossit House, owed by the Reverend Cossit and his wife and 10 children.  She died in childbirth during her 13th pregnancy.  They were Anglicans who moved here from New Hampshire just before the Revolutionary War.  Such a small house for such a large family, but theirs was one of the largest.  We also went to the Jost House, the oldest original wooden building, built in 1786.  Since the average man was only about 5' tall in those days, visitors either have to duck, or stand between the ceiling beams in the basement.  We walked by the wooden Sacred Heart Catholic Church that was first burned down by an arsonist, rebuilt, then had a spire hit by lightning.  They couldn't afford to rebuild again, so they just cut out the damaged part and capped it off, leaving it looking slightly off balance.  After 125 years of use, it was desanctified about 8 years ago and it's unclear what it is used for now. The Anglican Church, St. George's, down the street a bit is built of stone.  Smart Anglicans.  We went inside and parked our backsides in a pew that turned out to be the Royal Pew where the Queen Mum sat when she visited many years ago.  After that excitement,  we had tea and oatcakes at the local museum that used to be a beautiful bank before they moved to a new location.  

Sacred Heart Catholic Church building

St. George's Anglican Church

Sydney has had to remake itself in recent times since the main industry, a steel mill, closed in 2001.  Apparently now the main industries are customer support call centers (I never get a Canadian when I call customer support) and tourism. To that end, they have built up the cruise ship pier and commissioned their own icon.  The other Sydney may have the Opera House, but this Sydney has The Big Fiddle.  It is 60 feet high and constructed of steel in 2005.  (Maybe they had some steel leftover when the plant was closed?)  This part of Canada was always in a tug of war between the English and the French.  When the English finally had control, they kindly asked the French residents to sign an oath of loyalty to the Crown.  If they demurred, they were loaded on ships and sent south to the Colonies.  Many of them ended up in Louisiana and became known as Cajuns (which came from their French name of Acadians).  And I learned that the reason for the bagpipers recently is that much of the population is of Scottish descent.  

A chestnut tree which is found all over the area.

Sydney's icon:  The Big Fiddle

After adult beverages in the Stars Lounge, we went to dinner at Compass Rose.  Our table was near to Sarah from Cambria, CA.  She's doing the whole Grand Voyage also.  And on the other side was Lori and Stephen who are only on until Reykjavik.  We'll have dinner with them again before they get off.  We didn't make it to the show.  It's the production show, Tuxedo, which I understand is very good, but we were ready to head back to the cabin after dinner.  We lose 1/2 hour tonight.