Lego My Harbour - March 20

We went to the Museum of Sydney because it was one of the museums included in our Sydney Museums Pass. It was built on the site of the the first Government House, which, of course, was built upon the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. Government House was the home, office, and seat of authority  for the first nine governors of New South Wales.

As with the Hyde Park Barracks Museum, this museum is as much about the history of the site as about the artifacts and exhibits contained in the museum. The museum is small and therefore very manageable. Exhibits covered First Contact, contemporary Aboriginal art, models of the ship's making up the "First Fleet," models of Government House, and archeological artifacts discovered at thi site.

What made our visit extra special was the temporary exhibit there called Sydney Harbour Icons. The icons included the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, and a cruise ship. They were built with Legos and they were amazing. The cruise ship model was quite large, and it took a while to study every nook and cranny the builders had included. It was very clever and done with a sense of humor.

Unfortunately, our photos did not turn out well and do not do the exhibit justice.

Here is the ship. Notice the Lego yacht race sailing past the ship. Check out the ship's orange and white tenders. You can see many people and if you look in the Windows, you can see different activities taking place in different parts of the ship.

Close-up of the outside of the ship.

Close-up of  lifeboat/tender. There are people in deck chairs underneath, enjoying a beverage.

There is a Lego tugboat in the water next to the ship.

On the other side of the display you can see a cross-section of the inside of the ship. On the top deck people are lying on deck chairs and enjoying the hot tub. On the next level down is a large suite with fresh flowers on the table. Underneath is a deck with standard cabins.

This photo shows a section of the ship to the right of the section shown above. Next to the hot tubs there are people in the swimming pool. It has a dolphin fountain. One person is underwater in the pool.

This one is hard to see. In the room with the gray floor one of the chefs is chasing a pig with a hatchet.

Other things included in this model were crew cabins with bunk beds, the dining rooms, the theater, the medical center, banks of elevators, the engine room the engine control room, the laundry, the bridge, the forecastle, the gym, the salon, some of the bars, and much more.

The cruise ship model used 163,200 bricks and took 353 hours to build.

Here are some photos of the SYdney Opera House and Harbour Bridge models. You can't see it, but in the water next to the Opera House is a Lego replica of the real-life replica of Captain Cook's ship, HMS Endeavour.

After the museum we rode the train back to Town Hall Station. We wandered around in the Queen Victoria Building, which is connected to Town Hall Station by tunnels full of shops and food courts.

The QVB was built in 1898 and is gorgeous. It, too, is full of shops and food courts. And it was quite  full of shoppers, too.

Then it was time to head back down to Circular Quay, as it is adjacent to the Opera House. (We have been to Circular Quay at least once every day.) We had tickets for Great Opera Hits. Rather than pay to take a tour of the building, we thought we would prefer to pay to go to an opera, and we could see some of the building then.

Lobby of Joan Sutherland Theatre

Close-up of outside of one of the "sails"

<SPOILER ALERT>

The performances were superb. The host/pianist was very polished and got the ball rolling by asking how many tourists there were in the audience. Then he asked people from the US to raise their hands. Then he asked if there were any Europeans. AFter a number of audience members raise their hands he asked if there was anyone from Spain. A loud voice said "Si," and a man at the side of the theater stood up and said he was from Seville. All of a sudden a spotlight came on and he started singing Largo al factotum from The Barber of Seville. He jumped up on the stage and continued. 

There were three other singers and they all gave very high-energy performances. I would have to say they were all better than any of the performers I have seen at the Anchorage Opera. (Sorry, guys.) For the last piece, Brindisi, the host invited/encouraged the audience to sing along on the "la, la, la" parts. He even had us practice it in advance. Now we can all say we have sung in the Sydney Opera House!