Another new day another new city to explore and a rainy day. Tourist Information was our first port of call, this involved our first experience on a ferry. Our apartment was a 10 minute walk from Darling Harbour and we caught the ferry to Circular Quay. The ferry took half an hour stopping at 4 different stops and even in the rain the first sight of Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House is still awesome! Tourist Information near The Rocks were excellent and armed with their advice, the first thing we did was buy a 'My Multi Pass 1' for $41 each, this is a weekly pass allowing you to travel on any tram, bus, ferry around Sydney and it's suburbs.
Off to 'The Bridge Climb' office to book our climb. (I had been gifted a 'Bridge Climb' by the Hall family when I left my job at Bleasby school) and was keen to redeem it as soon as weather permitted. We booked Monday 28th at 5.25 pm to try to get the sunset on part of the climb.
Still raining, we had lunch at the Sydney Opera House followed by a guided tour. A few facts:
Original design by a 38 year old Danish man called Yurn Outsen and the drawing was very simple in the 1950's.
Finally opened by HMQ Elizabeth in 1973.
The Opera House has 5 theatres: The Playhouse with 400 seats, The Studio with 320 seats, The Drama Theatre with 540 seats, we heard that Mel Gibson made his debut here in 1977 and Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush also starred here.
The decor inside the structure is quite minimalistic with the possible exception of the Concert Hall, a 2700 seat auditorium which was by far the most impressive. The ceiling and chairs are made from White birch while the grand organ with it's 10,000 pipes looked amazing. We managed to book tickets to see one of Harold Pinter's plays 'No Mans Land' for that evening.
Still raining, we had a quick tour round Government House getting ready for a formal dinner the following day, beautiful grounds and views.
Ferry home to get changed and then ferry back to Circular Quay and off to see the play.
Our overall assessment, we did not rate the play or the performance. On the plus side however we managed to book 2 tickets for the final performance Julius Caesar for the following night.
We also met Brian seated next to Henry. It turns out he was in the same year as Henry at the Edward Cludd Secondary School in Southwell and had very clear memories of many of the teachers!
We set off for a beer or two and coffee at a nearby bar to chat with Brian and although Brian now lives in Brighton he visits friends in Halam! We enjoyed listening to the pros and cons of being an air steward for BA.
Time flew and we missed the last ferry home and waited a long time for a train near home. Bed around 1.00 am.