Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House

Often seen those pictures but had to check it out ourselves. We caught public transport and wondered around downtown.

I always thought it would be a lot bigger then it is in reality.

The Harbour bridge with a span of 500 meters or so. Erecting the bridge was the toughest part, that's why the bridge has a truss between the two arches so it could cantilever out before closure. You can do a guided tour, they call it the climb. You walk along the top arch and they charge 200 to 300 bucks depending on the tour. We thought that's a bit of a rip off.

6 lanes + 2 train tracks go across, pretty big.

Where the arch comes down.

One hinge (well, four) holds up the whole bridge.

downtown

Some nice restaurants with old buildings in the back ground. Going out for lunch here would have blown up our budget.

I think they used those big masonry towers as tie backs to cantilever the bridge out during erection (shop talk).

Enough of the bridge, off to the opera house.

Didn't know that the roof was made out of tiles. I always was wondering what the main structure was made of, looks like concrete. I thought it is a membrane.

There is a lot of engineering in. The budget was 15 times higher than assumed, I think it was 120 million at the end.

We walked to the botanical garden which was just around the corner, lots of flying foxes (I think they are bats) in the trees.

We took the ferry home.

Pretty nice houses, probably not cheap.

I must say Sydney has some nice suburbs.

Before dinner I went for a swim at Bondi Beach, the water is still pretty cold.

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