Sydney Opera House and Harbor

Summer break 2014 and the big trip was to Australia and New Zealand.  Unfortunately, our summer in the Northern Hemisphere is the winter Down Under.  It was living in "reverse world".  August conjures up hot temperatures and daylight that stretches into the late evening.  In the Southern Hemisphere August means time to bundle up and head indoors around 5PM as it's pitch dark as you eat dinner.  But Carlos and I went anyway.  We were supposed to meet on the 26th of July but due to a glitch with his visa, Carlos arrived the next day.

Taking the train to Circular Quay, I get off and am greeting by, on my left, the Sydney Harbor Bridge.....

...and on the right, the famed Sydney Opera House.  I spent the afternoon walking around.

Late afternoon light (in this case 4:30PM) around the botanical garden.

I spent a few hours watching the ships in the harbor....

....and sunset over the Opera House and Bridge.  After sunset, I walked back to Surry Hills (the AirBnb we had rented).

After Carlos' early morning arrival, we took a boat ride to Manly on the northern shore of Sydney Harbor.  It seems as though everyone in Sydney has a house with a view of the harbor!

Looking out to the opening of Sydney Harbor.  North Head on the left and South Head on the right.  In the distance.....the Pacific Ocean.

A hike from Manly to North Head and the views back to Central Sydney!

Carlos....on his phone.  Ok, I will admit that his ability to navigate using apps on his phone and the maps was quite useful!

At sunset the boat back to Sydney! 

We wanted to climb to Sydney Harbor Bridge....but at these prices.  We took a pass.

So on the way back, we were passing the Opera House and thought....maybe we could see something there.  Well it turns out that the Opera House has an opera (the left of the two buildings), a symphony hall (on the right) and four other theaters on the lower levels.

We scored tickets to a performance of Tartuffe in the Drama Theatre!

The next morning, we came back to the Opera House for a tour.  The history and the construction is fantastic!  Art in and of itself!