Day 18 -Sydney Harbor

After arriving in 100oF heat yesterday, today was mercifully cooler (high of about 70oF).

First activity for the day was a guided tour around the famous and iconic Sydney Opera House. The tour was actually super interesting with lots of information about the history of the building.

One kinda sad story is how the original opera house architect, (Danish architect, Jorn Utzon) got screwed when a change in local Sydney politics caused a souring of the project mid-construction. The new mayor decided to take control of the project through the state believing that the project was becoming too costly. This caused Utzon to resign, and he sadly never saw the opera house completed as he returned to Denmark upon his resignation and never returned to Sydney.

While everyone is familiar with the exterior of the building the interior was actually just as eye-catching. The building has lots of angles and utilizes different types of wood, all designed to mirror and compliment the exterior and the special wood is also used in the performance halls for optimal acoustics.

Activity number two was a cruise around the harbor in a very nice and comfortable cabin cruiser. Our fellow travelers on the boat were a foursome from Albany NY, a couple from North Carolina and a woman from NYC. It was fun to share travel adventures with each other. All very nice and some were doing their own version of our Big Trip. They were all intrepid travelers as well as good sources of ideas for Trip 2.0?

The cruise turned out to be a hop from feeding spot to feeding/drinking spot around the harbor. It was like we had a "boat for a day". Our first stop was at the famous Doyles for appetizers (called entrees here). Then we had a short ride to the next location for a delicious lunch with a beautiful view. We were all stuffed after being so well fed and watered! As you can see, we had more great views of the harbor, the bridge and Opera House...and a few glasses of wine!