Good morning Sydney!
This is the view from our apartment's little balcony.
Sydney has an interesting combination of modern high-rise apartments and these cute old little row houses.
The Tardis is in town!
We picked up the Big Bus hop-on hop-off tour down by Darling Harbor.
First view of the Sydney Opera House!
A street view going through The Rocks neighborhood.
Tree planters decorated for Christmas.
I like all the trees in Sydney. It seems very green.
Smaller older buildings against a background of skyscrapers.
Woolloomooloo is fun to say. ("Wull-uh-muh-loo")
An old school Coca-Cola sign.
Fun decorations!
More tree lined streets.
A dandelion puff fountain.
Huh. Okay.
The HMS Adelaide. She is a Canberra-class landing helicopter dock of the Royal Australian Navy.
HMAS Kuttabul, a naval base, is over here.
You can join us as we approach the Sydney Opera House.
The Sydney Opera House again! Woo!
Sydney Harbor Bridge!
Oh hey! Sydney has a boar too! Il Procellino is an icon of Florence, Italy.
Swinging past St. Mary's Cathedral.
The Griffiths Tea building.
One Central Park is the world's tallest vertical garden.
We drove past a lot of general city and then came back to Darling Harbor.
We got off the bus to get lunch and I found these fun birds.
We took the bus back up to St. Mary's Cathedral to check it out.
Dan took a weird panorama.
There was a wooden walkway across a reflecting pool to get to the courtyard in front of the cathedral.
We were there!
This child is having none of the Christmas decorations.
The bug on the ground is much more interesting.
A life-size nativity scene.
First proof that Jim and Sherrie are with us.
The full title of this building is The Cathedral Church and Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Mother of God, Help of Christians.
The Sydney Tower and....a stone gazebo.
Apparently it's a fancy drinking water fountain.
Wildflowers!
This guy is so full of sass and so done with whatever you're doing.
It's Robert Burns!
A...gladiator on a horse.
A view looking out from the columns of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
We had to check our bags, and while doing that I asked if photos were allowed in the museum. The clerk said, "Yes, of course! You can even take a photo of me." So I did.
A neat wall of colored glass/mirrors in the stairwell.
We came here to see this exhibit.
Do you see this?
"Portrait of a man" by Ferdinand Bol (1663)
Hey, can you tell me where the boats are? Yeah.....they're over there.....
"A senior merchant of the Dutch East India Company and his wife; in the background the fleet in the roads of Batavia" by Aelbert Cuyp (1660)
"Portrait of Gerard Pietersz Hulft (1621-56), first councilor and director-general of the Dutch East India Company" by Govert Flinck (1654)
I wonder if all the things around him are related to the VOC or if they were his hobbies.
VOC is the abbreviation for Dutch East India Company.
I was intrigued by how the paintings were attached to the wall.
"Two horses near a gate in a meadow" by Paulus Potter (1649)
"View of a village on a river" by Jan van Goyen (1645)
"Tailor's workshop" by Quiringh van Brekelenkam (1661)
"View of the church of Sloten in Winter" by Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraten (1660)
"Family scene" by Jan Steen (1670)
Boats, Boats, Boats! I like all the flags
I don't have info on this cause Dan took this photo.
A model of one of the VOC boats.
"The French Bed" by Rembrandt (1646)
This would have been considered shocking because it's a regular couple, and not gods, making love.
Chickens!
"Birds in a park" by Melchior d'Hondecoeter (1686)
"Still life with flowers on a marble tabletop" by Rachel Ruysch (1716)
Rachel Ruysch was one of the few female artists of her time.
"Still life with flowers in a glass vase" by Jan Davidsz de Heem (1665)
The Dutch artists are definitely the best at flowers.
"Vanitas still life" by Aelbert Jansz van der Schoor (1665)
I think they look like they've all fallen into a pile while laughing.
Oh potato, only you truly understand me. Hahahaha.
"Cydippe with the apple of Acontius" by Paulus Bor (1655)
Apparently you can trick people into marrying you if they read aloud the words on an apple.
"Adoration of the magi" by Hendrick ter Brugghen (1619)
This might be the ugliest baby I've ever seen in a religious painting.
Dan was in a Dutch Master painting!
Mirror of the masters and Dan.
These are all the materials used to make the paintings of the Dutch Masters.
Onto other parts of the museum!
"The silvering" by Mikala Dwyer (2017)
"Blossom gatherers II" by Raqib Shaw (2011)
"Lotus-clad Radha and Krishna" by unknown (1710)
There was this room of digital art.
It slowly changed over time
The museum had some lovely views out its windows.
Bus depot. Another one by Dan.
Ceremonial dance mask (hudoq) from around the 1800s from Central Borneo.
Man's cloth (hinggi kombu) from the 1800s from Indonesia, East Sumba.
This weaving style is called ikat weaving. They dye different sections of the warp threads (the ones that run along the loom) in advanced. It requires great skill to correctly weave ikat.
Summer kimono (katabira) from the 1750s from Japan.
I love all the embroidery and resist dye techniques and that this ramie fabric looks like denim.
This looks like a nightmare I once had.
"Do you have a rooster, Pedro? (Adda manok mo, Pedro?)" by Rodel Tapaya (2016)
Tapaya uses symbolism drawn from Catholicism and pre-colonial Philippine folklore.
"Armature 1 & 2" by Renato Habulan (2014)
"Warlugulong" by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri (1976)
"Untitled (Jupiter Well to Tjukula)" by Uta Uta Tjangala (1979)
"Atlas" by Colin Lanceley (1965)
This is made out of discarded wooden machinery parts.
"Construction" by William Rose (1956)
"City building" by Margo Lewers (1959)
Bark paintings from Yirrkala in north-eastern Arnhem Land (1959)
The second from the left is "Lany'tjung story (Crocodile and Bandicoot)"
"Hunting scene with diamond sting ray" by Bununggu Yunupingu (1959)
Tutini (Pukumani grave posts)
Me among the grave posts.
"Anak Bayan" by Ian Fairweather (1957)
Statler kissing Waldorf.
"Judas kissing Christ" by Arthur Boyd (1953)
"The sower" by James Gleeson (1944)
This makes me think of a cross between Dali and Goya.
Super moody Captain James Cook.
"The English Channel" by Michael Parekowhai (2015)
He's got a great view out to Potts Point and HMAS Kuttabul.
This is very reminiscent of van Gogh's "Bedroom in Arles".
"Australian beach pattern" by Charles Meere (1940)
This guy had a bunch of interesting "aphorisms."
"Spring frost" by Elioth Gruner (1919)
This one makes me think of a Toulouse-Lautrec.
I really liked all the art in this particular gallery by O'Shane and Mackie.
"Winpupula rockhole" by Miriam Napanangka (1996)
"Marpa" by Lucy Yukenbarri Napanangka (2001)
"Tjala tjurkurpa (Honey ant story)" by Yaritji Young (2016)
This feels like a blanket fort.
"Costumes" by Mikala Dwyer (2017)
...I don't know what's going on here. ART!
Sometimes stanchion tops need some moderning up too...or something.
"Divisions and subtractions" by Mikala Dwyer (2017)
"The angel, Possesion, Sigil for Heaven and Earth, Backdrop for rounders, and Backdrop for base matter" by Mikala Dwyer (2015-16)
That's probably enough art for today. So we wandered through the Royal Botanic Gardens.
The Cupid Statue fountain.
The gardens were lovely.
A lion!
Sydney Harbor Bridge!
This is a New Caledonian Pine (Araucaria columnaris). I thought it looked like scales or something.
Impatiens!
These guys might be the Australian version of Canada Geese.
Garden and then City!
Those little dots on the left are people walking up the bridge.
We decided we weren't interested in doing that.
These are Australian Magpies.
Probably an Australian Wood Duck.
The Sydney Conservatorium of Music. It looks so fancy.
A Folly for Mrs. Macquarie.
More probably wood ducks.
I don't know what this bird or this tree is, but I like this photo.
Jim and Sherrie and the Opera House.
A tall ship out in the harbor.
The Opera House is quite large.
We didn't do a tour of the inside, but wandered around the outside.
Oh hey, it's the Harbor Bridge again.
We were there!
The original cost estimated to build the Opera House was $7M. It ultimately cost $102M.
I am unsure if these are USD or ASD, but given that difference, it doesn't really matter.
"A net was installed above the orchestra pit in the Joan Sutherland Theatre during the 1980s following an incident during the opera Boris Godunov. The opera featured live chickens and one bird walked off the stage and landed on top of a cellist."
Have to have a selfie in front of the Harbor Bridge too.
There is some sort of amusement park on the other side of the bridge.
It includes a giant terrifying face.
A Justice free photo of the Harbor Bridge.
"There are more than 1 million roof tiles covering approximately 1.62 hectares sitting over the structure. They were made in Sweden."
Across the road from the Opera House, and about 10 feet up, is this plaque.
It's a seemingly random place for a plaque.
We walked up the road a ways to pick up the Big Bus again to take us home.
While waiting for the bus I wandered into this section of the Royal Botanic Gardens.
It's maybe an art instillation. I'm not sure. Google Maps calls is "Memory is Creation without End."
It was full of old decorated stone from, presumably, demolished buildings.
We took the bus back to the stop close to our apartment, put our feet up, and eventually got dinner.
This concludes our adventures for today.
