Sydney Opera House

Three days before we left Sydney, I finally got to go on a tour of the Sydney Opera House. My good friend Eisha Swinton called and told me I had to go before I left so she was going to meet me downtown and watch my kids for me out on the grounds while I did the tour. She is great and I am so glad I accepted her generous offer. I had already been to the opera house with Don when we went to see La Traviata in March (which was AMAZING!!), but I loved going on the tour and hearing all of the information about the construction, finances, structure, etc. It was fascinating.









William, Soren, Mary, Burke and Thomas (Olivia was at school)



Maybe it's weird that I took a picture of this (this was before the tour started, the bathrooms weren't actually on the tour :)!) but aren't the bathrooms pretty cool?

The reason the Sydney Opera House can have such an interesting unique shape is because it is really buildings withing buildings. So for example, in this picture you can see that the shape of the outer shell doesn't affect the shape of the inner building, which in this picture is the opera theater. The opera theater and concert hall of course have to have a certain shape for acoustical reasons, but since the inner and outer building structures don't even actually touch each other, the outside can have that iconic shape.
The architect, Jorn Utzon, is from Denmark, so of course having lived there, it made the building even more unique and special for me to see. There were some fallings-out in the middle of the construction and Utzon left the project before the building was completed. Even though he lived for many more years (something like 20-30 years more) Utzon never came back and saw the opera house finished. So sad. There was a reconciliation late in Utzon's life, though, and the tour guide said any repairs or improvements to the Opera House in the future will all be done to the specifications of Utzon's original plans.

So I didn't have to leave Eisha with all five kids, and so I could have some company, and because it was free for him, I took William with me on the tour. Could there be a more beautiful backdrop for the building? This is Sydney Harbour with the Harbour Bridge in the background.

This was the one room they let us take a picture of inside. This is the concert hall.

Back outside after the tour...William in front of a humongo tree.

These two monkeys climbing a really fun tree. Will was making me a little nervous I have to admit. I love this picture of Mary.

Me with my kids as we are heading home. You can tell how much my kids are just awe-struck by the opera house...I think they enjoyed climbing the trees ten times more.

Eisha and two of her kids. Thanks for a great day Eisha!!