Sydney, The Rocks

The Rocks area of Sydney, down by the harbor, is where it all began. This is where the convicts were first put to work to build their own housing. Small alleyways, some original buildings. I separated from the walking tour, and did my own art tour. I went to the Craft Center of NSW, over 100 years old, now housed in a World Heritage site, an old coroners court building, on George St, above the quay. I brought out my spindle to spin and met Gwen, who had done all the restoration weaving for theGovernment House.

I then went to the Contemporary Art Museum, which was mostly closed. I wandered here and there, into every Aboriginal Gallery I found. I took off across the Domain ( kind of like Central Park) and went to the State Library. It is a beautiful building. I went to a portrait show there, super paintings by contemporary Australian artists.Had lunch at the cafe there. I sat inside, as the breeze was pretty cool. I watched people eating outside, sharing their food with the Galahs....rather like we share with the seagulls- whether we want to or not! I then trucked on too the Gallery of New South Wales to see their world famous collection of Australian art to find that they had just closed that section for renovation! I did see a smaller show of some of the best works from Arnhem Land. Extraordinary barks in Xray style. I walked all the way back to thehotel (A very long walk)! Wandered through the Victoria Building, full of very chi-chi shops. Fashion in the big cities of Australia: very high heels; skirts a bit shorter; los & lots of leggings, with tight butt cupping tunics. Dogs- small, remarkably small. Many more small terriers than labs.

We arose at 3:45 am to fly to Christchurch, New Zealand!

Sydney Opera House, without the crowds.

The Sydney Opera House really is all that! I had not realized how extraordinary it really is until we got inside, before it was opened to the public for the day. It started as a truly abstract drawing of a feeling, a drawing of how one should feel inside. Yes the shells were evident in the drawing, but the liveliness an verve of the strokes spoke of the soaring music and the soaring views across the harbor. Wherever you are in the opera house, you will have a vista and an uplifting experience os space. When you wander the opera house you feel that you in a place suspended out of time. The use of the volume and the use of the materials is transcendent. The opera house took over 20 years to build because of the shell forms. The science had not caught up with the concept. Finally it was determined that the forms could be made by segmenting a sphere. Brilliant!

Sydney at Night

What can I say? Even with my crappy camera, you can see that it was beautiful! The group had an adequate Italian diner down at the harborfront. After dinner, we took a water taxi under the Sydney Harbor Bridge over to the Sydney Aquarium where we had an after hours tour. NO screaming children! It was wonderful to see the bridge from a different viewpoint. The harbor lights looked like Coney Island.

Walking the Sydney Harbor Bridge

It was a beautiful afternoon, overcast, windy, but perfect for a long walk! A small group of us buzzed through the Rocks Market, where we saw high end giftware, craft, new fashion designers, all under tents reminiscent of the Ann Arbor Art Fair. We got out the other side with most of our money intact and some chocolate fore fuel and scrambled up to the bridge. Some people paid lots of money to strap on flight suits and safety gear to climb OVER the arch of the bridge. Not us! But we talked to people who did it. For them, it was a peak experience. The arch has steps that you climb. There is a channel next to the steps into which you slide your safety cable, making it impossible to jump! All of your belongings are put in a locker and you wear nothing that can blow off of you, as the winds are always pretty high.Their bridge climb was delayed by the squall that we had experienced at Bondi Beach. Our bridge stroll was far less strenuous. Four of our group continued onto the other side in search of dinner. Dick, Angeline and I back tracked and joined the rest of our tour-mates for the Sydney by Night tour.

So now we are in Sydney

Sydney is BIG. That was my first, and typical response. I thought it was just another big damn city. But it was more than that. The harborfront was beautiful. After a seemingly interminable bus tour of the sights, we had a behind the scenes tour of the Opera House, a group photo and then drove onto to Bondi Beach to eat lunch and watch the surfers.