Sydney

Our time in Sydney flew by quickly as we spent 8 total days in two different place. The later four of those days were spent with Dad's parents as they were on their own one month journey celebrating Papa's retirement after a whopping 40 years with John Deere. Congrats! 

In hindsight we should have booked just one place but planning and logistics on the go are not always as easy as we would like. At one point we contemplated heading to Melbourne or the Blue Mountains for those first four days but ultimately decided to keep things simpler and slower and try to get some school done before our visit with Nana & Papa. 

Both places we stayed were in the same neighborhood, Surry Hills, which is an awesome location just south of the iconic Sydney Harbor. The area is conveniently located to buses, stadiums and tons of amazing restaurants. 

We exclusively used public transportation while here with "Opal cards" which allowed us on buses, trains and ferries. Every city is a bit of a chore to figure out how to get around and what method is easiest to determine the proper route. Here, Google ruled the day as it would pull up various options with all three methods and once figured out, made for fairly simple transportation. We were given misinformation several times though, and as a result ended up with more cards than we needed and remaining balances which we could not reclaim (without an Australian bank account at least). While this was slightly frustrating, the true consequence was fairly small and we were able to bless a local with pass balances. 

Our first place had a list of recommended restaurants and we opted for a small Italian pizza place which was the kids' first experience of true Italian pizza.  We weren't surprised that they wanted to go back every day! We planned to visit again but never made it back. 

The next day was a full school day, which made for a long, painful and challenging day. We still have not figured out how to cram a week of school into one day, in small spaces, and without having the Internet access/speed we are accustomed to.

On our third day we opted for a trip to Bondi Beach, one of the most famous beaches in the world. It did not disappoint as we rented surf boards and boogie boards and took to the water.  However, we saw a bit more than we'd excepted on the Australian beach and our boys didn't miss a beat as they questioned our experience asking, "We thought you said they'd be old overweight grandmas?"  Oh the conversations we get to have as we teach them how to relate to the world around them and process life through a Biblical lens - we are grateful to be their teachers!  Then we walked along the coast on a well known path which connects two other smaller beaches and amazing rock structures. We dined at a fabulous restaurant after a long day and successfully navigated our way back home via public bus.  

Overlooking Bondi Beach before it got crowded

Our surfers & a boogie-boarder

Our middle son's favorite Australian made beverage - Bundaberg Ginger Beer

On our fourth day, Thursday, we had to walk about 1.7km to our next Airbnb with all our gear.  Dad figured it would be a good test of our abilities. It was hot and humid (100 F!), our packs were heavy, and the distance painful, but we did eventually arrive at our new location soaked in sweat. Our initial enthusiasm towards our new larger place (because we were adding two roommates), was quickly met with some despair as the cockroaches greeted us, the place was poorly cleaned, and had no AC. UGGHH! But we did salvage the day by learning of a pro soccer game that night, the Sydney FC. This is the highest level in Australia and they were playing the Wellington Phoenix . Turns out the game was at Allianz Stadium which was just a short walk from our place. The game ended 0-0 but was a fun evening outing.

Hard to tell, but there was a rainbow over the stadium

We weren't really sure what day was Thanksgiving for us as it is obviously not celebrated in Australia.  Being that Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday, we thought we'd celebrate on Thursday, but the reality of the time different with our friends and family meant that they were all celebrating on what was our Friday...  This was just awkward, and added to the fact that we weren't cooking much due to the cockroaches, we were late to finding a restaurant that served turkey.  So we had a quiet Thanksgiving and enjoyed getting to FaceTime with our friends and family back home, it obviously wasn't the same, and there was no turkey, but we are grateful for where God has us in life and the many friendships and experiences He's blessed us with.

The next day we did a half day bike tour which took us about 17km around the sites of Sydney: up on the iconic harbor bridge, past the Sydney Opera House, through parks, Chinatown, and a stop at a local micro brewery. The kids, of course, were thrilled to just be riding bikes again. Following this we meandered around the markets and harbor, and then made the mistake of walking back to Chinatown for dinner, which was just flat out too far with hungry tired children. But we did make it and had some decent food. While eating and discussing the parable of the wheat vs weeds, we were also commenting on an odd elderly man across the street, who'd been hula-hooping on stilts all day with his face painted and in costume, collecting money.  As we left, we had a brief interaction with him and were once again convicted of being guilty of passing judgement and labeling people, as he was not what we'd assumed.  This beautiful 83 year old man was shot in the Korean War years ago, and has a dream to use the money he raises performing on the streets, to build a church in Korea so that he can share the love of Jesus.  We were touched and humbled.

In front of the Sydney Opera House & Harbor Bridge

Boys riding their bikes over the Sydney Harbor Bridge

Boys & view from the Sydney Harbor Bridge

Oldest son eating kangaroo on a skewer

Korean Street performer

The following day, Nana & Papa arrived and the kids had some plans for our time with them. The first destination was Sydney Apple store, which is the second largest Apple store in the world, and has the largest Apple logo. From here we walked, shopped and just enjoyed the city as we chatted and caught up on life.

One of the highlights of our time in Sydney was on Sunday, our first full day together.  We attended church service at the main Hillsong campus. Mom had "pre-registered" us as they recommend and Dad navigated the transportation which took us 1.5 hours to get there with 3 transfers. By being registered, we were greeted before the service and shown some "guest" seats (with many others from all over the world), and then after the service we were served coffee and cake and able to discuss the church with some volunteers. Brian Houston delivered the message in person, which was a real treat, and of course the worship was awesome. That evening there was another service and Brian was delivering a different message, which we were interested in hearing as well, so we opted to just hang out in the area because it was too far to go back to Surry Hills and return. We found a place for lunch but soon had some bored and sweaty children as it was another hot day. Eventually, thanks to Google, we learned of a nearby bowling alley and thought that would suffice. Upon walking a ways and arriving, the place was packed - not a single lane to be had for several hours! So we walked over to a nearby climbing wall and let the kids burn some energy. By the time we got back to church, the place was packed and we could not find seats together. They opened up an additional room for remote viewing and then started seating people outside! They were lighting their Christmas lights that night as it was the first day of Advent and we hoped to participate but had to leave due to public transportation frequencies dramatically slowing after 8pm. This was a small letdown to an otherwise awesome (and long) day.

Evening service at Hillsong's Hills campus

She scales walls like its nobody's business

On Monday, we headed to Manly beach for more surfing and hanging out on the sand. This beach was far less crowded than Bondi and much more our speed. It also required a ferry ride to get there, which was a great way to see the Opera House and beautiful surrounding area of Sydney.

Maneuvering the train station thanks to Dad!

Tuesday, we had booked a tour of the Hunter Valley, which included a stop at a small zoo with Kangaroos, Koala's and many other Australian native animals. One Koala had a newborn Joey too, which might be the cutest thing you've ever seen. Following this we made stops at a chocolate factory, cheese maker, two wineries and a local brewery.  The Hunter Valley is about two hours north of Sydney and though the drive was long, seeing some of the countryside and getting out of the city was refreshing. That evening, Nana & Papa offered us a "date night" to which we aptly accepted. After a bit of research we ended up at a restaurant call The Marque, which apparently is a highly ranked restaurant in the world. It was an amazing experience with a set 8 course menu all paired with wines. An unforgettable meal for sure!

Koala with joey

Crew with the kangaroos

Our last day we toured the one of kind Sydney Opera House. This one hour tour was packed with information and made us wish we had been more on our game and booked a show. The history of this famous structure was as amazing to learn about as it is to look at. The Opera House took roughly 14 years to build and was completed in 1973.  The original plan was for a 3 year project (in the late 60s) to cost $7 million, and in reality it turned into an almost 14 year project costing $102 million! Now if you are a geek, like dad, and wonder what that is in today's dollars-- it is $546 million (using the US dollar index rate which is not the same as Australia's but ... well you get the idea).

The opera house itself is actually a building within a building as the "sail-like" structure is more like a shell and was designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon, while the interior was designed by Australian Peter Hall.  Interestingly, the utilities are all housed between the internal structure and the concrete shell exterior.

Jorn Utzon used Mayan architecture to inspire the base of the Opera House, and the famous "shells" were inspired by Danish ship buildings, Gothic cathedrals, and Arabic tiled mosques.  While Jorn's drawing unexpectedly won the worldwide design search for the Sydney Opera House, he had no architectural drawings of how it would actually be built. Over 2 years and 150,000 man hours were spent trying to find the solution to how to construct the shells and yet there was nothing to show for it. It was ultimately Utzon's revolutionary "Sphere" that provided the breakthrough 4 years after the project began. This elegant and genius proposal not only solved the problem, but allowed for cheap manufacturing as all the parts of the roof come from a uniform sphere - an engineering marvel.  The famous exterior "shells" have 1,056,000 tiles that are self cleaning and while they look white they are actually a combination of beige/buff and off-white (to prevent the glare of the sun had the tiles been pure white). 

Utzon had been also grappling with the interior design. Inspired by the idea of a bird wing unfurling to Utzon's interior plans consisted of curved glass walls and plywood.  However, six years into the building of the Opera House, with the concrete shells of the exterior almost in place, a local government conspiracy forced Utzon to resign and take his designs with him. Thus, the interior structure, designed by Australian Peter Hall, has an incredibly different style than the exterior.    

At the time of Peter Hall's appointment to design the interior, the Australian government changed the requirements for the interior function along with increasing the number of halls and seating as the locals at that time were preferring concert halls over opera. The interior was built with 5 stages and many obstacles have been overcome as acoustics, inadequate dimensions of orchestra pits, lack of staging gear in certain halls, and shallow wing areas on the sides of the stage have all been issues after the interior was constructed.  All of this is reason for the standing joke, "Australia has the best opera house in the world - the exterior in Sydney but the interior is in Melbourne".  It is interesting to note that a $200 million upgrade to the Sydney Opera House interior is scheduled for 2018.*

It is currently ballet season in Australia, and Sleeping Beauty debuted here and was sold out 4 months prior to opening night.  We were able to visit the Joan Sutherland theater (formerly Opera Theater-- renamed in 2012), and see the stage set for this ballet.  We learned that they mop the floor with a Coke and water mixture to help prevent the dancers from slipping!  We also were able to visit the Concert Hall  and hear the orchestra practicing.  The interior of the hall is built completely from Australian timber and the hall houses a 138 pipe organ (10,000 pipes behind), which is one of the largest grand organs in the world and took 10 years to build!  To help with the poor acoustics in this hall, 18 acoustic rings were added to hang from the ceiling; however, improving acoustics in this hall is the major focus of the 2018 upgrade.  Even so, the guys thought it would be incredible to attend one of the few movie nights here where they project films such as Lord of the Rings and The Matrix and have a live orchestra below playing the music - we are told these shows see out in minutes!

Interestingly, in 2003, Jorn Utzon was awarded the Pritzker prize for Architecture, the highest award in its field, for his design and construction of the exterior of the Sydney Opera House.  In 2004 the refurbished reception hall was renamed the Utzon Room, and Jorn viewed this as the greatest honor. Finally, in 2007 the Sydney Opera House was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site (1 of only 2 places listed while the architect was still living, and the youngest cultural site to ever have been listed).  Utzon was later approached to help with some re-design of the interior; however, due to his age he nominated his son, also an architect, to carry out the re-design. John Utzon died at age 90, in the year 2008, having never returned to Sydney to see the completed Opera House.

Everyone really enjoyed this tour and we were glad we glad we did it. That evening we celebrated Papa's retirement at a local restaurant and enjoyed a famous gelato place down the street.

Possible opera singer in front of the Sydney Opera House

1,056,000 self-cleaning tiles cover the "shells" on the exterior

The interior of the Opera House

Concert Hall performance practice

Retirement dinner with Nana & Papa

We packed a lot into our 8 days in Sydney and still have a list of things we didn't get to do. However, we enjoyed the beautiful beaches, the friendly people with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, and the active and healthy lifestyle and food.

* Limelight Magazine: Sydney Opera House & Walsh Bay Upgrades