A beautiful rainbow over Darling Harbour greeted us at breakfast this morning. After breakfast and a quick trip to drop our laundry at Wash in the Rocks, we joined the group to walk to the Sydney Opera House for a guided tour.
We learned the story of the construction of the Opera House, the political battle that brought in a new architect, lots of statistics, and got to see (and hear) the Sydney Symphony rehearsing and watch the some of the members of the Australian Ballet practice some of their moves. We weren’t allowed to take photos during either of those segments, but photography was OK during the rest of the tour.
Lunch was included at the Opera Bar; the view and conversation were good and the food was ok.
After lunch, our guide Ronan took us on a short walk through the Rocks and told us a few stories about the early European settlement of Australia. We’d seen the William Bligh statue on our Monday walk but didn’t know why it was there; Ronan explained that Bligh was the fourth Governor of New South Wales and suffered a second mutiny here (it was the only successful armed takeover of an Australian government)!
Ronan also took us to see the “First Impressions” statue on Playfair Street; he told us about the protest demonstrations because the statue completely omitted the original inhabitants of the land, the Gadigal People (Aborigines). The statue itself is interesting because it’s a three-sided sculpture; it would be easy to miss one or two sides if you weren’t paying attention!
