After the harbour tour and before returning to the hotel, we were taken to a place called The Nation

Day 16 (Wednesday) was the first of two in Sydney and it was another early start. We were up at 6 am and had a tour of the city from 7.30 am 3 pm. At first, the sky was overcast and the temperature much lower and then we had a quick shower, but soon the sky cleared and the weather became excellent again.
Manuela gave us lots of statistics about Sydney: a city founded in 1788 as a penal colony, a community today of 250 nationalities and 144 golf courses, a harbour with 66 bays and 11 islands. Many of the inner city districts of Sydney have names resonant of London for Roger Vee such as Paddington, Kings Cross and Haymarket. One district, however, has an unusual indigenous name: Woolloomooloo which means small kangaroo (does any other word in the world have the letter o eight times?).
The centre of Sydney is blessed with a green lung of three interconnected parks: Hyde Park, The Domain, and the Royal Botanic Gardens. Our first stop was at the Gardens for stupendous views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Here too is the oddly-named Mrs Macquarie s Chair: a rock structure erected as a viewing platform for the wife of a colonial official. We then drove to the world famous Bondi Beach (the name means sound of waves ), noted as the birthplace of surf life savers. During a stop here, Vee Roger had a cappuccino at a lovely cafe called Lush On Bondi .
Next we returned to the city centre for a one-hour tour of the World Heritage listed Sydney Opera House with a passionate and amusing guide called Thomas who spoke to us via radio headsets. Two short videos told us the fascinating and turbulent history of the building. Over 30 locations were discussed before they settled on the fabulous choice of the promontory into the harbour. Some 233 designs were considered before a previously rejected one was chosen: the radical cheap eminem concert tickets concept proposed by a 38 year old Danish architect Jorn Utzon.
Started in 1959 when the technology did not in fact exist to realise the design, it was intended that construction would take three years and cost AU$ 7 M but, in the end, the work occupied 16 years during which the architect was effectively dismissed cheap eminem concert tickets and cost AU$ 102 M (much of it from a local lottery). There are six performance spaces with a combined capacity of around 6,000 places. We saw the two largest of these spaces the Concert Hall (2,000 seats) and the Joan Sutherland Theatre (1,500 places) before some of us purchased tickets for a performance that evening.
Next we all went on a one and a half hour cruise of the harbour in a boat called Sydney 2000 where we had a cooked lunch as we enjoyed fantastic views all around what is a huge harbour. We could clearly see people climbing to the top of the Harbour Bridge and, on one occasion, a few of them turning back at an early stage. This intrigued the group because four of us were going on that climb later today and Roger Vee were tackling it next day.
After the harbour tour and before returning to the hotel, we were taken to a place called The National Opal Collection cheap eminem concert tickets where we saw a video on how nature has created these valuable stones and 95% of the world s opals are mined in Australia. A showroom then presented for sale some stunning pieces of jewellery but nobody in our group bought anything. This was the only occasion on our tour of Australia when we were taken to what was in effect a sales pitch (but Roger Vee had to endure cheap eminem concert tickets many of these on their first visit to China).
In the evening, eight of us including cheap eminem concert tickets Roger Vee returned to the Opera House for a performance with tickets which cost us AU$ 79 (£53) each that was apparently reduced from AU$ 129. It was Orpheus In The Underworld , the operetta by Jacques Offenbach performed in the Joan Sutherland Theatre. However, this was not the original text in French but a modernised vision in English cheap eminem concert tickets that was very risqué and peppered with Ozzie allusions ( I ve had more fun in Adelaide ).
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