Rainy Day in Sydney

If someone were to have been following me around my last two days in Sydney, I think they may have thought I was either aspiring to be the next postcard publisher or planning an attack on Sydney's famous landmarks. I saw the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from the inside, the outside, from the boardwalk, from a park, from the water, from across the water, in the rain, in the sunshine, during the day, at sunset, and at night. If any of your kids need to do a school project on either landmark, I can provide you with all sorts of photos. Here is a rough sample...

Haha ok all sarcasm aside, I did do a lot and took a lot of photos in Sydney. One sunny day, I had a delicious steak (aka rump) and frites (aka chips) lunch at The George Royal.


And when I came out, the sky was dark and it had started to rain! I decided to take the lemons and make lemonade - so, I took an interesting tour of the Opera House. In a nutshell, the project went way over budget, time, and was a giant architectural feat led by a Dutch (I think...) architect who had to step down before its completion due to political mumbo jumbo. 10 yrs later he was asked to return as the lead architect to finalize some things, but he was too old to travel, so he had his plans executed via his also architect son. Sadly, he never had a chance to see his finished magnificent structure in-person.


They actually had thrown out this design in this applicant pool at first, but some American judge who came to the table late requested it be pulled back up - and it won! However, the sketches that were submitted were so basic that when they started building the foundation of the structure they didn't actually know how the 'shells' would be created. So, once they figured it out, millions of dollars later, they had to tear down much of the foundation and rebuild it to be fit for the shells.


We weren't allowed to take pictures of the theatres because there were stages set up - but the main performance hall was humongous and so beautiful. Completely built in beech wood to eliminate echoes and allow sound to travel; it takes 2 seconds for sound to travel from the stage to the back of the hall! Only the wool seats and human bodies absorb the sound.





These are the actual individual pieces of the 'puzzle' that was created to pull each arched 'shell' together!


I had a delicious Thai dinner with James in Surry Hill (James - is that right?), and prayed for better weather the next day.