Much exploring including the obligatory visit to the Sidney Opera House...loved the unexpected choice of theatrical bathroom spotlighting...

A section of the outside Opera House promenade was sectioned off - with a naturalist "on guard'' . The first southern fur seal for decades had pulled out on the water stairway. Great excitement as it is an indication of just how the harbour is recovering. Yahoo!

Also did a hop-on, hop-off bus tour...didn't do much hopping off - it was a long weekend very busy and crowded. Interesting canned commentary definitely in need of updating. Most of the sights we found most intriguing weren't even noted.

There was a wonderful mix of old and new buildings. Impressed with the care taken to keep and maintain some architectural treasures.

One of which, in my opinion, was the many old-timer terrace houses :

"Terraced houses in Australia refers almost exclusively to Victorian and Edwardian era terrace houses or replicas almost always found in the older, inner city areas of the major cities, mainly Sydney and Melbourne. Terraced housing was introduced to Australia in the 19th century . Their architectural work was based on those in London and Paris, which had the style a century earlier....

Terraced housing in Australia ranged from expensive middle-class houses of three, four and five-storeys down to single-storey cottages in working-class suburbs. The most common building material used was brick, often covered with stucco. Many terraces were built in the "Filigree" style, a style distinguished through heavy use of cast iron ornament, particularly on the balconies and sometimes depicting native Australian flora. As some terraces were built speculatively, there are examples of "freestanding" and "semi-detached" terraces which were either intended to have adjoin terraces or the neighbouring buildings were later demolished."

from Wikipedia, images from web