May 9th: Washout to Wonderful
Day 36 (Day 11 in Australia)
Thick curtains in our room meant waking in darkness. Looking at the forecast on my phone, it was worse than last night’s prediction: thunderstorms and frequent showers. I drew the curtains to find it was dry and sunny. Maybe, just maybe we could do something outside?
A little later we left the hotel, crossed the road and went into Hyde Park by a cafe at the top end. As we did, a large bird strolled in front of us. It was an ibis!* It came within a few feet and stared up at us as if to say, “Do you like my beak?”
We had a Quick Look at the impressive Anzac Memorial but, conscious of the threatening clouds above, decided to press on and try and get photos of the opera house and bridge before it rained. (Spoiler alert: we failed!)
The walk through the park was very pleasant. Pretty soon we came across a whole congregation** of ibises who had clearly given the cold shoulder to Billy no-mates at the cafe. Towards the other end of the park were some magnificent trees and the impressive Archibald Memorial fountain commemorating the WW1 association between the Australians and the French.
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| Royal Australian Historical Society |
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| Aussie RAC! |
Leaving the park, we walked along the busy pavements of the business district. White shirts and power suits all around us! As we neared our target of Sydney Harbour the sky turned darker and it started to rain. Then it rained harder. The sky said, “You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet” and showed us what it could do.
We sheltered under a tree with a lot of leaf cover and quickly put on our rainwear (or ‘pacamacs’ for older viewers) and waited. After about 10 minutes it slowed to a heavy drizzle and we decided to carry on, skirting the botanical gardens and arriving near the iconic concert venue.
You will undoubtedly have seen hundreds of photos of Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House bathed in sunshine under azure blue skies. Here is what we got.
We ran to the entrance to get out of the rain, bemoaning a rare bad weather day but the second consecutive one. Conceding it was a ‘wet play day’ we bought tickets for the tour of the opera house. They were timed for 12 noon giving us an hour to kill, just sufficient to go to the cafe and wrestle with the table top technology required to order two cafe lattes.
At 5 to 12 we went to the meeting point just as the rain stopped and the sun came out. Time for a couple more photos before it starts.
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| Yes they really are on top. In the rain! And they will have paid a lot of money to be up there. |
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| First ‘daily selfie’ for 4 or 5 days |
Our tour guide, Imogen or Immie, introduced herself, handed out audio equipment and took us on a fantastic walk around this incredible structure, opened in 1973. We got to go behind the scenes and into both the main concert hall and the Joan Sutherland Opera Hall in both cases we had to be quiet and not take photos as there were rehearsals taking place. Imogen isn’t someone with whom you would argue***. The tour lasted an hour and was superb.
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| Behind the main concert hall. Pavarotti refused to do a press conference here. Some Italians believe purple brings bad luck. Who knew? Certainly not the opera house press officer. |
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| But he was okay with the red behind the opera hall. |
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| Detail of the tiles |
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| Close up of the tiles. Nearly a million tiles. Less than 1,000 have had to be replaced in 51 years. |
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| Detail of the wood used throughout the interior. |
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| The bridge from inside |
As we emerged the sun had come out so maybe we could do more with the day? It was now after 1pm we went to another restaurant within the concourse where the terrible table-top technology totally failed us so I ordered at the bar.
After eating we took some more photos as we were reluctant to leave. It was, of course, unlikely we will ever be back here.
Remembering a tip from Phil we looked into getting the Manly ferry rather than the touristy sightseeing cruise around the harbour. We passed the latter on the way and enquired anyway: “Last one leaves at 3pm, lasts 30 minutes and costs A$89 each. That’s about £47 each. For half an hour.
Two minutes further along the quay, the Manly Ferry leaves every 15 minutes until after midnight, lasts 25 mins and costs A$8.40 each way. That’s less than the Gosport Ferry and a tad more interesting We jumped on!
Manly was really nice. A little seaside town with 2 or 3 streets lined with interesting shops and leading to the beautiful Sandy beach where there must have been 50 to 100 surfers. Glorious golden sands and sunshine certainly helped too. We sat and enjoyed it for 20 minutes and then strolled along the prom (prom, prom, tiddly-om-pom-pom) and back before adding a few more presents for grandchildren.
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| ‘The Corso’ - main shopping street |
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| Beach panorama |
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| Square rainbow |
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| One of many tall office blocks. |
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| The inside of the National Savings Bank Closed but looks very 1940s |
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| Couldn’t resist! |
They were having a wine-tasting event but were devoid of customers so they twisted our arms to try half glasses of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Shiraz. The shop owner told us about his ‘cellar’ with over 1800 bottles - and growing!
Finally it was back in our hotel and time for tea (beer) and a sandwich.
As you may surmise from the length of this post, what looked like being a washout has turned out to be a wonderful day. It doesn’t stop there, as we have a surprise unexpected bonus attraction tomorrow You’ll have to wait and see what it is as it is now 12:30am! Goodnight all!!
* Julie’s cousin, Phil, corrected me in a WhatsApp message earlier. It is the ibis that is known as a ‘bin chicken’ not the pigeon as I wrote yesterday.
** Yes it is! I looked it up. Either that or a ‘wisp’.
*** A preposition is something you should never end a sentence with. (Curses!)
NB: Julie is fast asleep so this post is still to be proof-read. 🤣
Update: typos corrected!
Dennis says: Great photos, great blog, the opera house was still being built when I passed it in 1971, our (HMS Plymouth's) helicopter flew under the harbour bridge (with permission), we had a mad pilot.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dennis!
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