Spectacular Sydney

These early morning clouds gave way to a spectacular blue sky over Sydney, a city of >5 million people, which hugs the world's largest natural harbor (the map of which reminds me of a crocodile's toothy smile) and is home to one of the most recognizable buildings in the world--the Sydney Opera House.  It is the capital of New South Wales and is the most populous city in Australia and Oceania.  If you are considering moving to Sydney after looking at our pictures, keep in mind that it comes in second only to Hong Kong as most expensive place to live in the world. 

Our sail-in brought us under the Harbor Bridge to our berth in White Bay.

Although Capt. James Cook landed here in 1770, the area wasn't settled until Jan. 26, 1788 when Capt. Arthur Phillip arrived in Botany Bay with a ship-load of convicts from England.  Our bus tour took us through some of the oldest parts of town to see some of the early homes and pubs built by convict labor out of the local honey-colored sandstone.  Of course, the indigenous Australians had been living  in the area for at least 30,000 years.  At the time of European contact, they were split into 250 individual nations, each with its own language.  Reminiscent of the treatment of Native Americans by the early colonizers, Aboriginal land was essentially stolen from them.  In the following decades, those who didn't die of the diseases brought by the Europeans  suffered as a result of the decimation of native sources of food such as kangaroo, or were killed outright in a war of extermination waged by one of the first governors.  Even after they began to gain a place in European controlled Australia, for a hundred years from 1871 to 1969, mixed-race children were forcibly taken from their homes and put into institutions for their care in a policy what created what is called "the Lost Generations".  As we stood outside the Opera House, there was a repeating message of honor and respect for the indigenous elders and an apology for the mistreatment of them.  May 26 is now known as "Sorry" day in Australia.

This little island, Ft. Denison, is one of 24 islands in Sydney Harbor.  Originally known as Pinchgut it was used as a prison in the early days of the settlement, then fortified as a defensive site when fear of a Russian attack during the Crimean War prompted the development of protective areas throughout Australia and New Zealand.  

Our berth at White Bay gave us this lovely view of Anzac Bridge.  Completed in 1995, it was named on Remembrance Day in 1998 in honor of the soldiers of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp who served in WWI.  Statues to the Unknown Australian Soldier and the Unknown New Zealand Soldier are on opposite sides of the road on one end and the flags of the two countries are on the top of the supports.

Our tour took us into the iconic Opera House, located on Bennelong (name of the first Aborigine to befriend the Europeans) Point, where a tour guide shared insights and answered questions.  We were able to enter (but not take pictures) the Joan Sutherland Opera Theater which holds 1,500 people under one of the giant sails.  The Concert Hall, home of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, is in the larger sail and holds almost 2,700.  Under that big hall lie three small venues, the Drama Theater, the Playhouse, and the Studio, seating between 400-500 each.  We went into two of those spaces.  Our guide told us about the architect, Jorn Utzon, the 38-year-old Dane who won the design competition.  Construction began in 1959, but without adequate engineering of the structure to hold up the shells.  Utzon finally solved the problem based on complex sections of a sphere; a solution which came to him during the act of peeling an orange.  A change in the political climate created a hostile relationship and Utzon closed his office in Sydney, moved back to Denmark, and never returned to Australia.  It was finally finished in 1973 at the cost of $103 million.  When Queen Elizabeth came to open it, Utzon's name wasn't mentioned in any of the speeches.  However, he was finally recognized when he was asked to design updates to the interior.  Ultimately, he won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2003, only the second time it was given during the lifetime of the recipient, and the highest honor in the field.  The accompanying citation reads: "There is no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is his masterpiece  It is one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an image of great beauty that has become known throughout the world--a symbol for not only a city, but a whole country and continent."  (Yes, this is my photo, taken out the open window of the ferry boat that took me from Circular Quay, pronounced "key", to White Bay.)  While I'm at it, I want to state that all the pictures in this blog were taken by either David or me--no lifting of online photos here.

On the left are the interior ribs.  On the right are the cream and bone ceramic, double glazed, tiles of the shells--over a million of them needed to cover the entire structure.  Our guide said that any grime that accumulates will wash off in the rain. 

 Most of the early construction in Sydney used Sydney Basin Hawkesbury Sandstone, or "Yellowblock".  The prisoners quarried building material at "The Rocks" for their homes.  Blocks cut from the area were dumped into the mangrove swamps to make Circular Quay--the ferry terminus and cruise liner dock area.  

Completed recently, the Barangaroo (name of Bennelong's wife) Reserve now features a reconstructed, naturalistic headland foreshore made of 10,000 Hawkesbury sandstone blocks excavated on site.      

Bondi Beach is one of the most visited tourist sites in Australia.  As we were there on a Saturday in summer, it was full of sun lovers.  The area deemed safe from rip tides is marked off and teams of life-guards are on the lookout for swimmers in trouble.  It's a favorite for surfers which show up in the photo as a line of spots off shore.

This is view of the city looking past Darling Harbor shows off the Sydney Tower, second tallest (behind Auckland's Sky Tower) tower in the southern hemisphere.  

Looking toward the northern shore of the harbor into Lavender Bay.

Boats everywhere, almost like a six lane highway!

At 4:30 on Saturday, our ship, the Sun, was repositioned from it's berth at White Bay to the Circular Quay.  We were jockeying for position with two bigger cruise ships.  Over 470 others will call on Sydney this year.  They were both too big to sail under the Harbor Bridge, so after one left, we took its place until 12 hours later when we went back to White Bay so another behemoth could have the Quay dock.  Our short sail through the harbor gave us a good chance to take photos in full sun, and also gave the Viking publicity team a chance to film the first Viking ship to come to Sydney.  The red helicopter circled the ship both during the repositioning and our sail-out on Sunday night.  Someday soon you may see a Viking ad with a 1/2 second long view of us sailing under the bridge or past the Opera House.  

Lovingly referred to by Sydneysiders as "the Coat Hanger", the Harbor Bridge was constructed from 1923 to 1932 and is the world's tallest steel arch bridge.  It has 8 vehicle lanes, railway tracks, and bicycle and pedestrian lanes.   It cost 6.25 million Aussie dollars and 16 lives to build. 

And if you want to have the thrill of a lifetime, you can climb to the top of the bridge, but as you must have both hands free at all times, you can't take your own camera along with you.  On top of that, it will set you back $130.  I passed on that bit of thrill seeking.

Circular Quay, bordered on the left by the Opera House and on the right by the Harbor Bridge.

That evening, while many of the passengers enjoyed "Carmen" at the opera house, we on board were treated to a performance by a group of indigenous Australians called "Descendance".  I'm sorry I didn't take a video of the portion of the performance when the different sounds made on the didgeridoo were demonstrated, but you'll hear it here.

We wanted to go to church on Sunday, so started looking into the logistics of getting there.  We asked Guest Services on board the night before to help us request a taxi for 9:15 am for the 20 minute drive to the meetinghouse on Summer Hill Rd.  Sunday morning we stood on the dock for 40 minutes watching one taxi after another drive along the road outside the harbor fence.  There was a security guard at the gate which may have been the reason none of them managed to get in to pick us up.  Finally, we talked to a roaming security man who used his walkie-talkie to get the guard at the gate to call a taxi for us.  Within 5 minutes we were picked up.  We reached the building with two minutes to spare.  Though the lds.org meetinghouse locator site said sacrament meeting started at 10:00, the painted sign on the door stated a 9:00 start time.  We opened the door to hear prelude music and see the chapel full of people.  We were a little confused, but sat down just as the meeting started.  It turned out to be Stake Conference, which largely consisted of a broadcast from church headquarters specifically for stakes in Australia and New Zealand.  We thought it was remarkable that we went from no transportation to a ride, from being on time to being late--then on time, and from meeting with members in a foreign country but listening to messages sent from our home valley.  We enjoyed the meeting, and afterward found a young woman who downloaded a "Taxify" app to my phone because she said it was cheaper than Uber, and requested a ride.  We were picked up by a pleasant young Nepalese driver 3 minutes later for about 2/3 the price of the taxi ride.  It was our first experience with a non-taxi ride app, but now that we've been initiated, I think we'll use it preferentially when we need a ride!

We spent a restful afternoon onboard the ship, then enjoyed our sail out of Sydney Harbor.  The captain steered the ship past the opera house, then turned around and sailed back to Circular Quay, made another turn and went out a second time.  He said he wanted passengers on both sides of the ship to have the view from their verandas.   It's 545 nautical miles to Brisbane, so we'll have a day at sea to get us there on Tuesday.