20231210 AAAA Trip - Sydney, Australia Day 6 - Sydney Opera House, a bunch of art, and...read to the end

2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip 
Day 85/105 - Sydney, Australia, Day 6, The Opera House, art, and an incredible coincidence

What a difference a day makes. According to one website, at 1:00 p.m. yesterday in Sydney, it hit 109°F. Yikes! At 6 p.m. yesterday, it was still 95°F. This morning, it was 70°F and foggy with a little mist/drizzle.

We headed out this morning, walking north to the Circular Quay area once again. We continued discovering interesting things to look at.

I have no idea what's going on here

We arrived at Circular Quay. Where the Celebrity Edge was yesterday, the Majestic Princess has taken up residence.

We opted to just grab fast food for breakfast as we were running close to our tour time.

What? You say that looks eerily familiar? You say that it looks remarkably like a Burger King logo? Well, that's because it is. Arlona did a little internet research and learned that when Burger King entered the Australian market in 1971, there was already a chain called "Burger King" with 17 locations across the country. Burger King was unable to make a deal for the name and opened under the name Hungry Jack's instead.

Our 10:45 a.m. tour was of the Sydney Opera House. Completed in 1973 after a 16-year build process, the Sydney Opera House celebrated its 50th anniversary in October 2023.

View of the Sydney Harbor Bridge from the north end of the Opera House

Us, rocking our listening devices so we could hear our guide

The front glass was sourced from France - one of two non-Australian materials used 

The glass was delivered in sheets and hand-cut on-site

There are three lower performance venues on the west side, under the main hall. Besides high-brow performances like opera and ballet, the Opera House features performances of all types to appeal to a wide variety of audiences. That was part of its mission when it opened - to provide access to performances to everyone. It was built using government money and remains a government building. To fund construction, they ran an ongoing lottery. It turns out that Aussies love to gamble and the cost was paid very quickly.

The 2,679-seat main hall is finished in white birch and brush boxwood for their acoustic characteristics - the magenta panels above are used to bounce sound back to the performers

There are sound-deadening panels that can be lowered when amplified performances take place as the wood bounces too much sound when the sound is amplified

There are seats behind the orchestra as well - not usable when the screen is in place - today, they will show Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II with the symphony playing the soundtrack live

The symphony seating

Special engraving on the wood to improve acoustics as part of a recent renovation

The building itself is striking with interesting angles and materials all around

The arches are covered in over 940,000 Swedish double-glazed ceramic tiles in white and off-white - the other non-Australian material

The two colors were used to give some definition to the arches

The double glazing makes them essentially self-cleaning - they heat up in the sun and that loosens and attached debris and then rain washes it away - they do not regularly clean the tiles

There are no gutters - you can see a small trough where water funnels and then runs off onto the floor below

The outdoor floor slabs are set with a gap that allows the water to channel away

Contrast that with the interior floor slabs that are tightly abutted

Back inside, we visited another of the smaller performance venues.

The lobby area

The lobby area

These smaller venues are sort of triangular in shape due to the high roof design. The narrow point of the triangle is at the stage, leaving very little room on the sides for props, performers, ready rooms, or anything else. Freight elevators behind the stage are used to move props and sets. Dressing rooms are one floor down.

In 1955, Australia decided to build an opera house on Bennelong Point and in 1956, opened a worldwide design competition. A 38-year-old, relatively unknown Danish architect, Jørn Utzon, won the contest with his striking design. The project, like many of this scale, ran long and over budget. With a change in government, Utzon lost his main supporter and was summarily dismissed from the project. Utzon left Australia and never saw the completed building with his own eyes. It still ran long and well over budget, but in 1973, it was completed. Many do not know that while Utzon designed the building, the interior spaces were designed by an Australian architect, Peter Hall. The Sydney Opera House is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Utzon is the youngest person ever to have designed a structure recognized by UNESCO.

The cooler temperature and low overcast remained as we left the Opera House. We entered the Botanic Garden and headed toward the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

The point opposite the Opera House - Mrs. Macquarie's Chair is on the opposite side

Even after noon, the low overcast had not lifted

We sat for a bit and watched the birds.

Several dusky moorhens were walking about

An Australian white ibis seemed like it wanted to play

This tree was full of cockatoos

We were seated near a small pond. Several fish were repeatedly jumping out of the water. I don't know if it was a game or if something more sinister was under the water.

An Australian water dragon was sitting out and enjoying the shade

We eventually found the Art Gallery of New South Wales. It is divided into two buildings. We started with the newer north building.

Neither of us is what I'd call an art aficionado - sometimes we just don't understand it

Aboriginal art

We thought this was a cool installation

This was called Bad Lemon

This had something to do with female orgasms - we didn't understand it

We moved on to the original building, now referred to as the south building.

Sphynx rested across the street, facing the building

The building was flanked by two statues

Yup - that's a huge spider you have to walk under

This greets you as you enter

We liked this - each stone is suspended from two strings going to opposite corners

Captain Cook - Arlona added for reference

This does not look like an endorsement of marriage

This was just goofy

That's actually a stylized globe

There were lots of paintings

We found this humorous

We had enough art and started heading back toward the hotel to find a late lunch / early dinner.

Matchsticks

Sydney has a lot of statues all over

We ended up in a restaurant called The Rook. They had a really good buttermilk fried chicken sandwich. The thing that the menu didn't disclose was that the sauce they mix with slaw on the sandwich is hot - seriously hot. I was burning through napkins as my head was sweating! I power through it and Arlona scraped it off the rest of her sandwich. After dinner, we picked up a little more pop and returned to the room.

Weird part alert

OK - here's the weird part of the day. If you've been following along on this trip, you know Arlona lost her phone in Thailand. You also know that our awesome neighbor, Dave, retrieved and activated the new one for us and that our awesome friends, Sue & Trish brought it with them when they joined us in Bali. We disembarked in Sydney to stay for a week. Sue & Trish disembarked in Sydney to tour other parts of Australia. Today they were in Melbourne.

Crazy backstory alert

Sidebar - my mom was an only child - until right before she turned 60. The public story was that her dad, my grandfather, had lost his wife and two children in a train accident in Canada. He moved to Chicago, married my grandmother and they had my mom. My grandfather passed away in 1968. When my grandmother passed in the mid-1990s, the funeral home forwarded a letter from a woman researching her husband's genealogy and that my mom's dad was probably her husband's father as well. Long story short, death was a more socially acceptable story in the 1920s than divorce. He and his wife had divorced. She and the boys stayed in Canada and my grandfather moved to Chicago. Around when she turned 60, my mom met her two older half-brothers, Bill and Bruce Mason for the first time. In an odd coincidence, one of them lived in The Villages, where we now live. Both are gone now.

OK, back to Sue & Trish. Arlona received this text from Sue tonight.

You won't believe this, but we were speaking tonight at dinner about taking your new phone to you with one of our friends who lives in Melbourne.  I've known him since 1987 when we worked together.  He was amazed when we mentioned your first names and asked about your last name.  So, small world, he told us that he is a 1st cousin of Garry's.  Apparently, Garry's mother is the half-sister to his father.  Our friend's name is Will Mason!  Isn't that a coincidence?

So, I have another first cousin who lives in Australia. Unfortunately, there isn't any opportunity to meet since we leave on Tuesday and Melbourne is a nine-hour drive from Sydney. But, what are the chances that our friends who joined us on the cruise have known my cousin since 1987? Talk about your six degrees of separation. Wow.

With that crazy coincidence bouncing around in our heads, we are wrapping up today. Tomorrow, we have no current plan but will work out something in the morning. We did book our trip up to the top of the Burj Khalifa and to the Dubai Aquarium today so plans for next week are starting to shape up. Tomorrow is our last day in Sydney before flying to Dubai on Tuesday.