Australia 2012
Day 4: Sydney, continued
After lunch, we strolled over to Cadman's cottage, Sydney's oldest surviving dwelling. It is named for a convict who, after an eventual pardon, was made superintendent of government watercraft. His wife Elizabeth, also a convict, had been sentenced to seven years' transportation for the theft of a hairbrush. Outside the cottage, I snapped a photo of an ibis; these scavengers are as ubiquitously annoying as seagulls, if much more exotic to the foreigner's eye. One of our first sights upon exiting the train from the airport had been a couple of them running about a food court — something that told us we weren't in Kansas anymore.
Next, we walked to, around, and through the Sydney Opera House. You probably know that its design is the product of a competition in the 1950s, but perhaps not that it took 14 years to make it a reality. The competition was announced in 1955, won by a Danish architect in 1957, with construction beginning in 1959. A lot of design modifications were required to make it work. It contains more than 1,000 rooms, including opera and drama theatres and a concert hall seating 2,679. Its highest roof point is 221 feet above sea level; the roof is even more intricately beautiful than I had expected. Although the inside also exhibited a clean, modern design sense, I was impressed enough to take a photo only of the backlit toilet paper dispensers. Think that says something about my design priorities.
A broad walkway surrounds the complex jutting into Sydney Harbor. From it, you can see the small island of Fort Denison, looking rather like Alcatraz. Back when it was called Rock Island, convicts were confined there as punishment. On the other side, you can see the Garden Island Naval Dockyard, with its huge crane.
Click on any photo thumbnail to see a larger version.
