Hello Sydney!

!!!!

Fourteen hours in the air was tough, but we were met by a warm, cloudless morning.  The excitement of the passengers was palpable -- all of us were itching to stretch our legs.

Sydney's main airport, Kingsford Smith, is clean and efficient.  In less than an hour, I had my checked-in luggage, made it through customs, and found a cab to the Inter-Continental Hotel in downtown Sydney.

I got to my hotel so early that my room wasn't ready.  So I dropped off my bags and went for a walk  I was immediately struck by how much Sydney felt like a cross between London and Miami.  Cars on the left side of the street, red double deck buses.... but 80 degrees and palm trees.

I walked along the Sydney Harbour, and then I gasped -- I saw the Harbour Bridge, and it all became real.  I'm in Sydney!

I made my way to the Opera House.  It's a striking building.  In one sense, it lives in the past -- it's been famous for so long that everyone associates it with Sydney.  But architecturally, it's very forward looking.  It looks like it was built to belong in the future.  So for me, looking at the building was like looking at how folks in the 1960s envisioned the future.  Would we be living in curved homes with flying cars?  I recently re-watched 2001:  A Space Odyssey, and had the same feeling.  The past is speaking to the future, and the future is observing the past.  

Without sounding too pretentious, when I approached the Opera House, I felt a sense of reverence.  It feels like a cathedral to the arts.

I took a guided tour of the Opera House.  Our tour guide was funny and informative.  Jørn Utzon, the Danish architect who won the design competition for the Opera House, included some fascinating details.  He was influenced by Mexican culture, and he included the silhouette of Mayan temples in the design of the interior stairs.

 The interior space is just as striking as the outside.

The iconic "shells" cover two main performance spaces. with a small courtyard in between them.  The space in between is called "the cleavage."  Go figure.

After all the walking around, I got hungry.  I found a delicious Chinese Restaurant call Fat Buddha, where I had some Dim Sum.  After my spring rolls and pork buns, I felt reenergized for more exploring.  I made my way to the Art Museum of New South Wales and popped in to escape the heat.

The museum is devoted to Australian artists.  There is a good diversity of works.  There are traditional paintings and sculptures:

But there is modern art and Aboriginal art as well:














Just like London, Sydney has a Hyde Park.  In the center is a World War I memorial.  The fountain, designed by a French artist, commemorates the alliance between Australia and France during the war.  After a good day of sightseeing, I made my way to back to my hotel for dinner and rest.