Friday

This morning we took the train to the Opera House and signed up for a tour. We had an hour to kill so grabbed a snack at the Opera Kitchen, where I made a new friend.

He and his friends were flying from table to table and one of them actually hit me in the head with his wing as he was flying by us. 

We joined up with our tour. Our guide was great, we learned lots of trivia about the design details; for example, outside the theatres the glass walls are angled at 45 degrees so that when exiting, the patrons don't see their reflections, they only see the gorgeous view of the Harbour.

Some great examples of the geometry and symmetry of the design. 

We were allowed access into the Concert Hall, which is the largest of the theatres. We weren't allowed to take photos because they were setting up for a concert,  but look up pictures online, it is impressive! 

When we were done we walked to the Quay and caught the ferry to Manly, a suburb 30 minutes north-east of the city. There is a huge sandy beach and lots of touristy shops. This is looking up the pedestrian mall:

The north half of Manly Beach:

Aahhh, the warm South Pacific:

We walked around the sea walk to Shelly Beach, in the distance:

Close-up of Shelly:

Later in the afternoon Brad's friend Judith and her husband Neil had us over to their place for a drink. They put together a picnic dinner and took us back into the city to sit under the bridge, where we ate with a fabulous view of the Opera House. When it got dark we had prime seats for the Lunar New Year fireworks, which they personally arranged for us ;)

Judith and I had an adventure using the public toilet on the street. It's like entering a fortress, everything is controlled by button - it took us forever to figure out how to access the toilet paper. Since we were each in our own separate stainless steel fortress, we couldn't communicate. The whole time a really bad version of "What the World Needs Now, is Love Sweet Love" played, we think to discourage lingering. 

We took the train home from there, it was a late night, but so much fun!