An Iconic Sydney Day

In case you didn't know, this is the Sydney

Opera House.  I need to take more pictures of it!

Maddy had a paper due on Tuesday that she had planned to write whilst we were traipsing around New Zealand.  While I never procrastinated in college (Editor’s Note: That’s simply NOT true.  Writer’s Note: Well, THAT’S how I choose to remember it!), Maddy did not find time to write her paper, so we suggested that rather than stress, she take most of Monday to write it (after, of course, skimming the two books required reading for the paper).

So, Carol and I set off to explore Sydney on our own.  The morning was cool, but again, it was headed to 99 degrees.  After an okay breakfast, we set out to walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Wolfies, where we had dinner with Maddy's

friends the night before, is probably the

fourth and fifth building from the left of that row.

Please notice I said “walk across” NOT "do the bridge climb."  Given the heat, Carol’s bad foot, and my bad knee, there is NO WAY we were (or even just I was) going to do the Harbour Bridge Climb, which involves many flights of stairs (the worst thing for my knee) on the way to climbing to the top.

The iconic Opera House shot from the 

iconic Harbour Bridge.  I guess that

makes me an iconic photographer.

It was Labour Day, so there were loads less traffic on the bridge than normal.  Plenty of people were walking, jogging, or running fast across the bridge.  Our hotel conceriage predicted it was a 30 minute walk in each direction, but he doubled the amount of actual time needed.

(Well, it should!)

The sun was starting to get hot, especially on the exposed bridge, but there was a harbour breeze keeping things under control.  We obviously had great views of Sydney, especially. . .yup, the Opera House.

On the way back, we walked all the way along the Cahill trail to the Botanical Gardens.  Now, it was getting hot.  After a water/snack break (as the Minions would say: “banana!”), we headed to the Opera House to buy tour tickets.

Aussie flag on top of the Harbour Bridge

The tour was great.  Even at $37 dollars per person, it was well worth the price of admisssion.  Our guide, Mike, was a very enthusiastic and interesting leader.  And, he had to deal with a big hassle.

A nine year old boy (just an age guess on my part) with behavioral issues was on the tour with his beleagured grandmother.  The boy kept hassling Mike – trying to get his attention, turning off his microphone, interrupting him.  I would have, in the vernacular of my dad, “put Scott through a wall.”  Mike took much longer to get cross with Scott than I would have.  The grandmother was not particularly aggressive at trying to rein in Scott’s bad behavior.

The above pic is for my brother Rod!

You can do the bridge climb! 

Me? No way with this bum knee!

The tour was so interesting that I can’t say that Scott ruined it – in fact, now we have something to laugh about it.  Mike, on the other hand, hopefully got his next tour off and went directly to the bar.

The main theatres, up close and personal

We visited three of the five performance venues, including the massive concert hall and the very large opera hall.  We went in back doors, saw performances being set up, and got to admire the amazing architecture that has made the Opera House the first (only?) UNESCO heritage site of buildings constructed last century.

Roof tiles, even more up close.

We also got to see two short five minute movies during the tour.  The movies (a two-parter) focused on the history of the Opera House – including the challenges building it.  The movies were great – really helped with the context of it all.

The back story on the competition for the design, as well as the building, is quite fascinating.  Without boring the faithful blog readers, here is a quick rundown of the most important parts:

∙ An American judge in the contest arrived late, and asked to review the discarded entries (there were over 200 from around the world).  He plucked the design out of the discarded entries and said it deserved to be winner.
∙ The Scandanavian architect had no idea whether the design could work structurally, so he and the engineers basically made it up on the fly.
∙ The politicians said it was a $7 million, three year construction.
∙ It actually took 14 years and $103 million dollars.
∙ After a change in government, the architect was forced to resign and never saw the finished masterpiece.

(Pretty good summary, Glen – nice work!)  (Thanks Glen!)

Inside the opera house.

We thought about getting tickets for Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes,” but it wasn’t on for Monday, and the Tuesday performance was only a 1pm matinee.  There were a couple more obscure performances in the smaller theaters Tuesday night, but nothing enticed us to buy tickets. Oh well.

From there we went through more of the Botanical Gardens, having lunch in the café.

From the Botanical Gardens

Fountain in the Gardens

With the temperature rising, we had time for one last stop before going to see Maddy.  So we headed up toward the Sydney Tower.  At 99 degrees, it was a bit of a slog from the Botanical Gardens to the area where the Tower is.  We first went to the fountain in Hyde Park, and then over to walk through St. Mary’s Cathedral – which was nicely air conditioned.

Fountain in Hyde Park

Memorial to Australia's War

Dead in St. Mary Cathedral.

We then reversed course to the Sydney Tower.  It was not a long wait for either the short 4D movie (yawn) or the elevator up.  It was neat being able to see all around Sydney – even better had we covered more ground before going up.  But, we could see Manly Beach, the Gap, Circular Quay, the Rocks, the Bridge, the Opera House, etc.

We did not stay up long, as we were to shower, change, and head off to meet Maddy and see her apartment, the University of Sydney, and go to dinner in Newtown.  Because of the time, distance, and heat, we took a cab back to the hotel.