MAGNIFICENT

We had the opportunity to take the girls to the Sydney Opera House for a tour.  WOW!  WOW! WOW!

It was fantastic and the place is stunning.  The tour guide that we had was amazing and kept us all entertained for an entire hour.  It is an unbelievable structure and beautiful inside and out.  

The girls happen to LOVE Drama!  Big surprise.  :)  This is the perfect place for them to see lots of DRAMA on display.  When we lived in Cary, I had season tickets for two years at the Durham Performing Arts Center.  The girls had the opportunity to go with me many times to the theatre to see a play.  You can imagine by the end of the tour of the Opera House, they were begging to come back to see something on one of their five stages.  I promised them that we would return again!  

 Outside the concert Hall

 View into the Opera Hall

 Jane climbed 200 steps throughout the tour that day.  What a trooper in that boot!

 The roof - the girls think it looks like a reptile.  

Some of the tiles are shinny and glisten in the sun.

The View!

Before the tour started, Tom challenged them to remember their favorite fact and we would share it at the end of the tour.  However, if someone shared your fact before you had the chance you would need to think of another one.  The girls listened very attentively because they were searching for a unique fact to share.  Our tour group was very small only about 15 people....normally they have about 30 people in each tour group.  Because of this we had the chance to ask many questions and the tour ended up being 20 minutes longer.

Waiting for the tour to begin :)

Our facts that we learned: 

Jane:  The top half of a sphere cut into pieces was used to design the shape of the shells that cover the Opera House (the roof).

Grace:  The Opera House was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973.

Claire:  The original budget and time table-table to build the Opera House were incorrect.  They projected it to take 3 years and 7 million dollars.  In reality it took 16 years and over a 100 million dollars. - so much for the budget!  Sounds vaguely familiar to my construction projects in life...just kidding Tom.

Stephanie:  The Opera House has 1,056,006 swedish tiles on the roof and in the years that it has been open only 20 have had to be replaced.

Tom:  A massive elevator shaft that was used to take scenery to the Opera Hall was made into a cool looking theatre called “The Studio” when they moved the Opera Hall to the other side of the Opera House.

We had a fabulous time and if you are to every visit us in SYDNEY it is a must see!