07/26/2026 – Culture! …Sort Of. (Poor Jane Austen must be rolling in her grave)
This morning we arose bright and early. We enjoyed the free breakfast at the hotel, and then took a walk around the harbor. At 10:30, we started on a tour of the Sydney Opera House, which finished being built in 1973. It is a magnificent structure and an icon of Australia. As with most large projects, it had its controversies (and enormous cost overruns!) You really can’t appreciate the beauty of it without being next to it. The interiors are just as impressive as the exterior. There are six venues inside, including the famous Concert Hall.
After the tour, we grabbed the free lunch which was included with the tour. Sitting outdoors, looking at the bay and the also famous Sydney Harbor Bridge, we enjoyed our meal. The temperature was just perfect. The meal not so perfect, free did not include dessert. Oh well, we are sure we can find some gelato on the boulevard.
At 1 pm, we sat down to enjoy our show, “Pride and Prejudice…Sort Of”, which is a hilarious, irreverent, and current take on Jane Austen’s book, showcasing the enormous changes in society between the 1813 time period it was written in and today, as well as the unfortunate similarities. We laughed non-stop at the absurdities of the dialog and the adaptations of 1970’s pop songs. A good time was had by all. (Well, not all. At intermission, an older couple got up and, as they passed us, the lady fumed that her husband had fallen asleep at yet another play! She was livid and vowed to NEVER take him to another venue again! They did not return after the intermission.)
After the play, we wandered around the nearby park and through its arboretum, enjoying the birds and the views of the water, the bridge, and the opera house. We sat for a while and enjoyed the spectacular sunset over the two icons. When we started heading back, we found that there was a wrought iron gate which now closed off the trail through the arboretum! We were on one side screaming “Let us in! Let us in!” while there were people on the other side screaming “Let us out! Let us out!” All of us were confused and trying to figure out how to get back to our destinations. We took the long way home. Along the way, we stopped for dinner at a large building with several restaurants. We saw one that said “Bavarian” on the sign, so we went in. Burgers and wings were on the menu (as well as one schnitzel dish) and rugby was on every television. “Bavarian” in Australian is apparently “Sports Bar” in American. Nonetheless, dinner was good and we made it back to our hotel.
Oh, yes, our hotel. It is a charming historic building with beautiful rooms. Our room, unfortunately, did not come with an ensuite. We have to go into the hall and through another door to the shared bathroom. The good news is that we only share the bathroom with one other guest room, which was empty our first night. The bad news is that our guest room door is heavy, with a strong closer, so you best bring your key with you if you try to go to the bathroom at 1 am! We rigged up a system whereby we hung a hand towel near the door and wedged it in to keep the door open a crack when we needed to step outside the room. Crude, but it works! Tonight, there are 2 people in the room next door. We’ll keep our fingers crossed. We didn’t notice the camera in the hallway until Day2, but fortunately the space between our room and the bathroom is hidden underneath a narrow stairwell. The hotel, on the plus side, is centrally located and we can walk just about anywhere we want, from the older section known as The Rocks, to the newer and touristy section along the boulevard leading up to the Sydney Opera House. Perfect, since we didn’t want to drive in the city. Tomorrow sees us head off to the mountains to do a bit of hiking.
