Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Sydney Harbour Holiday

 This post has nothing to do with motorcycles but I thought I'd post up some pictures from the weekend my wife and myself spent in the city for some relaxation. I am sure that no matter where you live in the world that you will instantly recognise the following pictures. They are the iconic symbols of this country after all. We don't normally come into the city often unless it is work related so a weekend doing some touristy stuff was welcome.Unfortunately the photos don't quite do justice to the real thing.



If you look closely on top of the bridge you can see tourists on the bridge climb. I did one about 8 years ago and it was fantastic. If your in Sydney on Holidays you should give it a go.

We visited the Opera house and I wanted to get some close up photos. This building is absolutely amazing in both its sheer size and its complexity in its design. The closer you get to it the harder it become to take a good photo. The danish engineer/architect that designed this was a genius.






Here is a close up picture of between the shells and the peak of the roof. Looks like they used copper plating for the front section. As the copper age's in the weather it changes colour to faded dull green you can see here.

I recently worked at the Yacht Club building on Hamilton Island that had an all copper roof. It was brand new and all brown but they said that in about 12 months time it would be all green as I had seen in the artists impressions of the place. That roof would be worth a fortune at the scrap metal yard.






I'm sure that the poor guys quoting the tender to tile this place could have tripled their quote and still went broke. The amount of tiles on this thing is phenomenal. The curvature of the shells would have made this very hard to work on. I guess that's why it took so long to build the thing. Touching the tiles near the bottom they were smooth like glass.


The afternoon sun reflected a brilliant orange light on the side of the building. It looked quite spectacular. They sometimes have light shows at night times where they shine different lights and lasers  on to the shells creating awesome effects.


This picture is looking back towards the city from the opera house viewing area on the western side.
I may be a bit biased but we sure do have a pretty special harbour with some excellent views. Its very photogenic.

Tourism Australia, you can start sending through the royalty cheques anytime now.

11 comments:

  1. You may not think the photos do the subject justice, but I think they are stunning.

    The photos are awesome and I think tourism should be sending you those checks, or at least using your pictures on their brochures.

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    1. Still haven't got any cheques yet, but theres plenty of time. Thanks for the comments.

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  2. The Rocks area is also very picturesque. Sydney uses its harbour site really well and is like San Francisco in that regard and they both have iconic bridges.

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    1. You are correct although I've never been to San Fran. If its anything like sydney harbour then maybe it should be on the bucket list.

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  3. +1 regarding the photos Steve! We had a tour of the Opera House about 4 years ago and it really is one of the World's great pieces of architecture. We actually felt quite emotional going through it, particularly as there was an orchestra rehearsing a superb classical piece.

    Sydney's a great city and the Hunter Valley is pretty darned fine too :-)

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    1. Thanks Geoff. Ah yes the Hunter.... nice vineyards and some superb motorcycle riding and if you combine the 2 then you have a match made in heaven.

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  4. Beautifully captured. Thank you!

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  5. Those photos are pretty great!! I have to admit that when I lived only bout an hours drive from Sydney I never visited the Opera House, and I had never driven over the bridge. Pretty slack, but we fixed that last year and I've done both, love your photos of the opera house, it's pretty amazing close up.

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  6. Its funny that when you live there you don't actually go and do those things tourists do even when you have something as world class as the opera houseon your door step. Its a bit like nah i'll do that later, its so close we can do that anytime and then you never get around to it.

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  7. Great pictures. Thanks for posting them.

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