Had a terrific tour and lunch at the Opera House today. Truly an amazing structure which initially was going to be built in 3 years and cost $7 million. In actuality, it took 16 years to build and cost $102 million. It was built on an Aboriginal site where fishing for cockles and mussels was done resulting in piles of shells on the site which was the inspiration for the shell like structure of the roof by the Danish architect, Jorn Utzon. He resigned from the project before it was completed due to a change in the Government resulting in him not getting further payments due. He never returned to Australia to see the finished product. The roof is made up of white and tan tiles, the white ones are glazed and the tan ones have a matte finish to decrease glare...the entire roof is self cleaning.
The opera is currently pèforming in Melbourne and won't return to Sydney until after we've left. Very unfortunate for us.
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