We weren’t due at the airport until the afternoon so I had enough time to go back to the Opera House. It was third time lucky and I joined a tour of the buildings that set off soon after I arrived. The Sydney Opera House was one of Australia’s most controversial buildings due to its design as well as time and cost overruns. The tours can only enter parts of the building that are unused. I was fortunate enough to have picked a time when nothing was in use so we got to sit in both the opera and larger concert halls.
This large ship passed under the harbour bridge whilst I was waiting for my Opera House tour to start
The “sails” of the Opera House are covered with many thousands of tiles
The consistent design of the Opera House continues inside on this supporting strut
I walked back to the hotel through the Botanical Gardens. This Australian White Ibis was poking around in the grass
I’m not sure what this plant is but it’s very impressive
After packing our bags at the hotel we got a taxi out to the airport. Although there was a big queue for check-in for our flight they opened another couple of desks and redirected us to them, a nice bit of queue jumping! From there we had a late lunch and did a bit of shopping. I bought myself a watch but because we hadn’t yet cleared customs they warned me not to open be sealed box until I was in the air-side part of the terminal. Even then I was a bit stymied; it’s a solar powered watch that had to be charged for 24 hours!
After take-off the crew struggled to get the in-flight entertainment system to work. It was threatening to be a very tedious trip but after consulting with technical support back on the ground they got it going after about two hours. We had a short refuelling stop in Bangkok. We flew over the Netherlands which were very well illuminated and came into Heathrow up the Thames. I had a port side window seat and saw the Medway towns; if I had been on the starboard side I might have seen the island where my mother lives.
All told; a fantastic holiday.