Exploring Sydney, and a Farewell Dinner Cruise

Prowling Paddy's Market

Most of this, our last day in Sydney, was free time so we could explore Sydney on our own.  I spent some time working on the trip blog, and then took my camera over to Paddy's Market, just two blocks from our hotel.

The market has several floors and occupies a large building.  The top two floors floors look like any other mall, but the fun part is down on the ground level.  There are found dozens of stalls selling clothing, jewelry, small electronics, and an eclectic mix of stranger things.

The first shop I encountered sold athletic jerseys from teams around the world.  Miami, Chicago, and New York I can understand, but Oklahoma City?  In Sydney, Australia?  In the second photo, I suspect that the green T-shirt isn't really made by Prada.

This was a typical stall, with every square inch, horizontal and vertical, covered with merchandise.  The name "Paddy's Market" would imply some sort of Irish connection or history, but every single vendor that I saw there was oriental.  Note that the proprietor is reading a Chinese newspaper.

This stall had Aussie-themed products.

Hats and hair pieces.  The pink plaid hat is particularly fetching.

Not everything was (knockoff) merchandise.  This portrait artist was drawing a sketch of his client.

For all your Rolex needs.  At several stalls I was told not to take photos, probably because all the merchandise was counterfeit.

This stall had nothing but stockings and anything else that could be put on a leg.

Ah, the famed Aussie bluntness.  I like the tongue-in-cheek fake Facebook logo, too.

How about a Diva Outlet?  Everything here is a watch or clock.

Remember what I said about "eclectic"?  This place sells campy plaques ("DAUGHTER - When I count my blessings, I count you twice"), weird-looking ceramic cats, knives, and Samurai swords.

Looks like they've sold one of these.

Lots of colorful patterns, and more hats.  And colorful patterns of hats.

Wigs in every color of the rainbow.

I think a few of these mannequins were intended to model something other than wigs.

Refugees from Super Mario's world.

Turn the corner and, instead of more "licensed" clothing, there's a large fresh produce market.

I enjoy finding and photographing colorful patterns, whether natural or man-made, and I took lots more photos at Paddy's.  Rather than filling up this blog with them, though, I've put them in a photo set on my Flickr account.  Access this link if you want to see them.

Leaving Paddy's, I dodged around one of Sydney's trams on my walk back to the hotel.

After lunch, the bakery in Chinatown where I found breakfast the day before had lots of tempting things for dessert.

Our Farewell Dinner

Earthbound/All Classical tours always end with a memorable dinner (lunch in Prague, because of our travel schedule).  The Sydney extension was no exception.  Our farewell dinner was aboard a cruise vessel in Sydney Harbour.

Here we're waiting for Jack to pick up our tickets at will-call.  We're back at the Circular Quay, where the big cruise ships, smaller cruise boats, ferries, and water taxis all dock.

We all started with champagne.  We had a big table right by the windows.

Once sailing time arrived, we headed out into Sydney Harbour.  Our vessel didn't actually go anywhere, it just cruised around and passed by the sights of the harbour.  We got to see some of the harbour traffic up close.

Notice that the driver of the water taxi has his head through a window, presumably for a better view.  This wasn't just momentary, other photos show the same thing.

Now the view out our window is of Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The weather was changeable.  It was cloudy when we arrived at Circular Quay, then turned even more gray and misty.  Eventually it cleared up some and a bit of sun appeared, but not in these photos.  The Opera House seen through the mist is an interesting sight, though.

As time passed, more and more sailboats appeared.  I suppose people were getting home from work and heading out on their boats.

The sun is coming out a bit now, bringing some color with it.

Jack and Bob taking photos, as was everyone else.

Our boat made one last pass under the Harbour Bridge.  The cruise ship in port now is from Carnival; the Royal Caribbean ship has sailed.

At the end of the dinner cruise, back onto the Circular Quay, back onto our bus, and the next day back to Auckland, San Francisco, and home.

We've had a marvelous and memorable time.  Now, where was the next All Classical tour heading?

Sydney Opera House

Walking to the Opera House

After our walking tour of Sydney ended, we headed toward the Opera House.  On the way, we expected to find lunch.  Some people stopped off as we passed pubs and cafes, while some continued on all the way to the restaurants on the Opera House site.

This Google Earth image shows part of the area we've been touring, and all of the area in which we'll be for the rest of today.

Google Earth image

We've been most recently in The Rocks, which is indicated on the left side of the image.  The Circular Quay is the area encompassing the cruise ship and the five quays with the smaller vessels (ferries, taxis, and the like).  Fancy hotels are along the right (East) side of the quay, while the Opera House is out on the point of land that juts into the harbor.  All along the Circular Quay are restaurants and shopping.  The restaurants extend all the way to the Opera House, along the water.  Near the Opera House the restaurants are open-air, but under cover, and they don't appear in the aerial photo.

We passed a shop offering things Australian (check out the boomerangs in the window).  These didgeridoos were on display outside. 

Wikipedia has an interesting article on the didgeridoo.  The name didgeridoo seems to be a Western invention; it has many names depending on the location of the aboriginal people making and playing it.  One of it's "real" names is ngarrriralkpwina, so it's easy to see why Westerners would invent a name they could pronounce.

This fellow was playing a didgeridoo on the street, with a container open to receive coins from passers-by.  Notice that he's hi-tech: he has an amplifier and speaker, with the microphone on the ground just in front of his instrument.  He was producing seriously weird sounds.

We passed under this really old-fashioned street light as we walked under a viaduct to get over to the Opera House area.  It's electrified now, but must have had oil lamps and then gas lamps years ago.  This is one of the oldest parts of Sydney.

A rather unusual Christmas tree in a public space.

We're at the Circular Quay now.  Here we can see a huge cruise ship and the Opera House.

Here's the row of hotels that show up on the Eastern side of the quay.

The cruise ship, Royal Caribbean International's Radiance of the Seas, as seen from the Eastern side of the quay.  One of the local cruise boats looks like its tiny sister next to it.

After passing the hotels, we could see the Opera House ahead of us.  We descended an escalator to the lower level where the bars, restaurants, and seating areas are.

Pre-concert lunch

A typical restaurant.  All the ones we saw were of the order-at-the-counter variety.  A waiter would then bring your order to your table once it was prepared.

A sampling of what several in our group had for lunch.  All of it was excellent, including the local beer and the sake.

Christa Wessel photo

Time to start thinking about going up to the Opera House (it's just overhead from here) to attend the concert, a matinee by the Sydney Symphony with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet as guest soloists.

Yes, we really have tickets to the Sydney Opera House.

Attending a concert

The inside of the Opera House is very interesting -- all the structure is exposed to view.  Much more of this on our Opera House tour, later in the day.

Our tickets were bought at different times, so we weren't all seated together. Did you notice the fine print at the bottom of the ticket above?  It says "Rear View seating behind Stage".  Some people (not part of our tour) were in fact directly behind the stage.  A group of us weren't directly behind, but were off to one side while being further back than the last row of musicians.  This is the view from my seat before the concert began.

Another group was seated in front of the orchestra, but well back in the hall.

Christa Wessel photo

Looking toward the main seating area, from the "behind the stage" seats.

Looking over the edge, directly down at the tympanist's position.  I don't think I've ever before been this close to the performers in a concert hall.

Christa took these photos at intermission -- looking out through the Opera House's windows at the Circular Quay with the cruise ship, and looking toward the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Christa Wessel photo

Christa Wessel photo

The audience poured out during intermission ("the interval") for a quick spot of champagne.

Christa Wessel photo

Christa Wessel photo

After the concert, before our guided tour of the Opera House, I spent some time wandering around the outside.

This display shows the "eureka moment" of the architect, Jörn Utzon.  He had designed the sculptural shape of the "sails", the curved walls that were to form the roofs of the performance halls.  The shapes were very complex, though, and were next to impossible to construct.  Every part of every roof/wall was to be unique, which would lead to great expense and construction delays.  The display shows how, by adapting the curves in his design a bit, he could form each roof out of a section of a sphere.  Now all the curves would be the same, and the roofs could be assembled by bolting together many identical parts.  This made the Opera House's construction feasible.

Christa also took some photos outside, including a great one contrasting the "sails" with the virtual sea of steps leading up to the Opera House.

Christa Wessel photo

Christa Wessel photo

Christa Wessel photo

Eike took these two outside the Opera House.

Eike Richter photo

Eike Richter photo

A guided tour of the Opera House

Then it was time for our tour.  We each had a radio headset so that we could easily hear our guide without having to all cluster around her.

We started by walking up the stairs on the outside to get to a balcony that overlooked Sydney Harbour.

From there, we had excellent views of the Harbour Bridge and the activity in the harbour.

The dots on the very top of the bridge are people taking tours of the structure.

Back inside, we saw a large space with very purple carpet.  The space is a foyer or promenade, where concert goers can gather before entering the hall for a concert.  Our guide explained that Luciano Pavarotti had been invited to a reception there, where he was guest of honor.  He stepped into the room, saw the purple carpet, and refused to participate.  It seems that purple signified death and funerals to him.  Not a problem: the house staff picked up everything for the reception and moved it to the near-twin foyer of the other hall, which had carpet of another color.  Pavarotti was satisfied, and the show went on.  The photo doesn't really convey how highly saturated the purple color is.

Some views of the architecture of the inside of the Opera House.

The exterior surfaces are covered with specially-made ceramic tiles.  I was reminded of the tiles on the Space Shuttle, but of course the two kinds of tiles are not alike at all.  These are ceramic, and should last a very long time.

Much of the Opera House looks nautical -- sails, rigging, or ribs of a ship.

Here are some of the identical parts that were assembled together to make one of the roof shells.  To me, it looks for all the world like the inside of some gargantuan typewriter.

The end of the day was ours

After our tour, we were on our own for the rest of the evening.  Eike and Kathleen took a ride on one of the ferries or harbor boats and captured these iconic images.

Eike Richter photo

Eike Richter photo

Eike Richter photo

Several of us started walking back toward our hotel, which was a considerable distance away.  When we reached the monorail, we rode it the rest of the way back.  The third photo below shows he monorail from our hotel.

Christa stayed around the Opera House.  This is a shot of happy hour around Circular Quay.

Christa Wessel photo

She got her own iconic images of the Opera House as the sun went down.

Christa Wessel photo

Christa Wessel photo

Christa Wessel photo

An excellent day as a tourist.  The Sydney Opera House is even more spectacular than it appears in photographs.  It was definitely the highlight of the Sydney portion of our trip.

Tomorrow, our last day here, we have time to explore on our own in the morning and early afternoon, and then a farewell dinner cruise on the harbor.