Day 10: Sydney, Australia

Day 10      7/15/06    Sydney, Australia

We got up early so that we could make the 8:00 a.m. bus for our tour of Sydney by coach.

We listened as Danna explained interesting tidbits like how expensive Sydney is to live in. I guess real estate prices have really rocketed over the past 15 years, even for small places on good locations. Some small home owners can't afford the taxes for their house even though it had been paid off. 

Lady Macquarie's Chair

Throughout the day it was rainy and overcast. Luckily our next stop was the Sydney Opera House. We got a nice hour long tour about its history. A Danish architect won the contest to design the center. The cost overruns and a new government caused him to leave the project unfinished.

The view from Lady Macquarie's Chair

The new architect from Australia was able to finish the Opera House and did an impressive job on the inside. The inside under the shell was not made as the traditional opera houses were made at the time, but more modern. We got to tour both the opera part and the concert/orchestra part and it was impressive.

The next part of the tour had us view where the Tasmian Sea met the Pacific Ocean. We also got to see Bondi beach. There were some surfers there despite the rotten weather. The next part was a tour of an opal store and we got to see how it was made. Australia has about 95% of the world's opals. They are made from the remains of dinosaur fossils and such that had been buried a long time ago. Then when a giant meteor crashed into the area (making most of the the species extinct), it turned the fossils and such to opals. After the explanation, the group got a chance to buy.

In front of the Opera House and Bridge (Back row: Tim Van Prooyen, Alex Bukoski, Sam Patton, Front row: Chelsea Wiles, Stephanie Cahoon, and Kayla Sherwood)

We were originally going to take the tour of the harbor in the afternoon, but the weather made us decide to do it on another day. That left the afternoon for us to go shopping and explore. We ate at the food court in Sydney's massive Centerpointe mall. Then the groups went off to shop. I walked down to Darling Harbor and then up to St. James station to look for the markets. I noticed an outdoor chess game going on and watched. I got to play the next game and played a fellow from Belgium. (I won). It was nice to play during the dreary afternoon and meet other people. Afterwards, I went shopping and headed back to the hotel.

For supper, the seven of us walked down and had a meal at Sydney's Hard Rock Cafe. Walking back the rain started up again and so we retired to our rooms for the night.