Coves of Sydney and its Opera House

by Charlie Leocha

It was a perfect Sydney day. Hardly a ripple on the harbor. Bank temperature signs blinked 20 degrees (68 degrees Fahrenheit). The Harbor Bridge arched over a pool of sparkling glitter. The Opera House glowed with changing shades of champagne in the rising sun. A lone ferry churned to Circular Quay leaving a wake stretching backward toward Manley. Not a cloud marked the sky. The awakening city tossed seductively, gathering itself for the coming day.

Our group had just arrived on the redeye flight from Darwin that dropped us into Sydney at around 6:30 a.m. The van from the airport had us at the elegant Observatory Hotel (8248 5220) by around 8 a.m. after picking up luggage. Our choices were to catch up on sleep or go out to enjoy Sydney; and then meet to visit the opera house at 4 p.m.

Each of the writers in our group had different agendas. One craved sleep, one needed an immediate workout, another planned a walking tour of the town and the botanical gardens and I decided to reacquaint myself with The Rocks district that surrounded the hotel, by wandering through its narrow streets and stairways.

I arranged to meet Andrea, one of our group, later to take a ferry out to the headlands of the harbor, grab some fish and chips and walk along the cliffs that faced the Pacific. We’d meet the rest of the group later in the afternoon prior to our visit of the opera house.

My walk through The Rocks retraced much of this area that I had visited during the Olympics. The imposing Sydney Harbor Bridge towered over the narrow streets and split the neighborhood into a quiet residential area surrounding the Observatory Hotel with secluded gardens and even a tucked-away tennis court, and a busier tourist side next to the ferry landing and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Scores of coffee houses, art galleries, a handful of pubs, outdoor restaurants, souvenir shops, the BridgeClimb and, on the weekends, a weekend open-air market bring both tourists and locals into these streets. Argyle Street, linking the two sections of The Rocks, bores through an archway under the bridge.

Every turn opened another window into Sydney’s early history. This is Australia’s birthplace. After Captain Phillips landed on January 26, 1788, The Rocks was the center of Australia’s torrid history. Convicts, sailors and marines worked to build a small settlement and create a bastion of Englishness in this new land. The Rocks also eventually became the main port area of the growing city.

The Nurse’s Walk section of The Rocks stands where the original tent hospital was first set up after the initial landing of convicts. It was later replaced by a prefabricate building. Old working class homes from the early 1800s, such as Susannah Place, are still preserved. And the mid-1800s Sailors’ Home has been converted into the Visitors Center.

Nearby pubs and hotels vie for “the oldest” and have rich histories. The Fortune of War on George Street claims to be the oldest pub. The Lord Nelson on Kent Street claims to be the oldest hotel. The Hero of Waterloo on Lower Fort Street has a checkered history as one of the pubs where men were press-ganged into marine service after being dropped through a trap door in front of the bar. The Observer Bar still serves schooners and pints in a days of yore setting.

A bit before noon, we struck out for Watsons Bay and the harbor headlands. Climbing up Observatory Hill we walked through the gardens of the Sydney Observatory, down narrow streets and a series of staircases to Circular Quay where we boarded a CityCat ferry and climbed to the top deck for the trip to Watsons Bay.

The ferry landing led us directly to Doyle’s restaurant, famous for its seafood and fish and chips. Before having a taste of fish and chips, we decided to walk up to The Gap with its plunging cliffs down to the Pacific. As a spectacularly beautiful place to walk these cliffs are hard to beat, but after returning, I learned that they are famous for suicide leaps and some of the country’s most disastrous shipwrecks. Back in 1857 the Dunbar wrecked here with the loss of all but one of its 122 passengers and crew.

The views along the cliffs that drop to the Pacific are breathtaking and the views back towards the city center offer a panorama of the beautiful harbor, the skyline and the Harbor Bridge.

The walk past The Gap can lead to the south towards Bondi Beach or curl around the headlands that define the entrance to Sydney Harbor. We took the path to the headlands and its lighthouse. Much of the promontory is a military reserve and off limits, but a path traces the edge of the water. We took our shoes off and splashed along Camp Cove Beach, the actual spot where Captain Phillips first landed in Australia. Wooden steps at the end of the beach lead to a pathway to hidden Lady Bay Beach (a nudist beach) and onwards towards the Hornby Lighthouse.

I tested the fish at Doyle’s. They offered one piece of fish for A$4.00 but the not-so-friendly counter lady found it impossible to allow me to test a single French fry. Then while starting to enjoy the fish on a park bench overlooking the bay, a gutsy seagull swooped in from behind me and took my first bite of fish literally off my fork (he got the fork as well). I closed my box with the remaining fish, got another fork and moved to a spot where my back was protected and I could fend off the feisty birds.

The ferry ride back to Circular Quay stopped at Rose Bay where once upon a time, Pan American Airway’s flying boats landed and today seaplanes still land midst the flotilla of pleasure boats. We vowed to return to some of the isolated parkland islands in the middle of the harbor and watched as sailboats gathered to play in the evening breezes.

The evening was spent at the Sydney Opera House (tours: 9250 7777; information: 9250 7111). This building is perhaps the iconic symbol of Sydney. Its soaring sail-like roof panels catch the changing light of day and at night lights illuminate its graceful curves. It is far more than simply an opera house. The Opera Theater is only the second largest in the complex with seats for 1,547. The Concert Hall actually seats more than a thousand additional audience members. A series of smaller theaters are nestled beneath the two main stages.

The Danish architect, JÃ¸rn Utzon, came up with the concept of the roof design while peeling an orange. His design won an international competition and was far beyond the construction techniques of the 1950s. The construction of the theater complex took more than 14 years and design disagreements and construction problems resulted in Utzon quitting the project and returning to Denmark, never to see the final form of his creation. A team of Australian architects finished the interior of the Opera House. In effect this is a building within a building, each designed by a different architect.

After a performance by the Sydney Symphony at the Concert Hall, we headed to Guillaume at Bennelong Restaurant (reservations: 9241 1999; Bennelong was the Aborigine advisor to Captain Phillips). This is one of Sydney’s signature restaurants, considered by some to be the finest in Australia, and the striking views across the harbor are hard to beat. The dining room is tucked beneath its own set of curved roof wings with the harbor and downtown Sydney just outside massive picture windows. The menu features the best of Australia’s produce and livestock — Kangaroo Island chicken, Wagyu beef, Morton Bay bugs, Queensland scallops, yabbies and barramundi — accompanied by the country’s finest wines.