Sydney, Australia. Lord. What an incredible, beautiful place! The harbor is vast and gorgeous, the city vibrant and cosmopolitan. It can take your breath away just to look around.

After leaving Rhode Island, via Boston, we were able to stopover for a few hours with our son, Nye, at Manhattan Beach in LA. After an endless flight from LA in which we lost a day, we arrived in Sydney on Sunday morning. Two days here, I still have little sense of the time. The weather is hot, humid but breezy, with rain storms that blow up suddenly, drench everything, and then blow away just as quickly, leaving an electric blue sky. We are staying just by Circular Quay, the original site of the 1788 founding as well as today’s transit terminus and the central people-friendly space in the city. Stand at the ferry landing and to one side is the Sydney Harbor Bridge (1932) spanning the harbor, to the other side are the gigantic shell-like curves of the Sydney Opera House (1973). Boats, ferries, cruise ships, trains, and hundreds of people—some hurrying to some destination, some just taking photographs or drinking in the glory. Our friend Gareth had warned us that you can’t stop taking photos, and it’s true for me. Every moment, every subtle change of the light and I’m shooting again.

We explored The Rocks and the Circular Quay on our first afternoon. Today these are heritage districts filled with shops, pubs and restaurants, and street markets and fairs. But one has to think back to the people of what is called the First Fleet—11 ships carrying about 1,000 people (over 750 of them convicts) and provisions who had to carve out a life here. It must have seemed like the end of the world to them and a very rough challenge indeed.

Yesterday (Monday, I think) we began with the special Back Stage Tour of the Opera House that I had booked before leaving the US. I figured, correctly, that the 7 am start for the tour wouldn’t bother us since we would have no idea what time it was anyway. So at 6 am we were strolling the nearly-deserted quay under a grey, threatening sky. The tour was wonderful and exhaustive. For an hour and a half we roamed in a small group of 5 (with Darryl, our guide) through all the five performance spaces of this glorious building, visiting orchestra pit and fly tower, stages and dressing rooms, examining the machinery of set changing and lights, and ending with a big breakfast in the Green Room, all the while listening to Darryl’s anecdotes of the workings of the House and the performances of the Greats through the years.

The Opera House was designed by Jorn Utzon in the 1960s but not completed until 1973. Most Australians regard it as, not only an extraordinary performance venue (over 2000 performances a year, totally across all the genres!), but as the harbinger of “the beginning of the new, modern Australia,” as Darryl put it. It’s such a bold design, unlike anything before—or after—it. Apparently, 60% of the world’s population can recognize and identify it, making one of those rare global icons like the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty. I found the exterior spaces as compelling as the interior—as many as 100,000 people can gather in the forecourt of the Opera House to celebrate an event.

Immediately after our tour, we jumped on a “hop-on-hop-off” cruise boat and spent the rest of the day cruising Sydney Harbor. It’s a huge body of water with many, many bays and suburban “villages” that are all part of greater Sydney. We stopped for a couple of hours at the Taronga Zoo, taking the cable car up from the dock and working our way down the steep hillside. We signed up for the tour of the Australian animals and met our volunteer guide, Cookie, a sprightly, wise, elderly woman who introduced us to the many distinct, even strange animals that can be found nowhere else.

Our next “hop off” was Watson’s Bay, where we had a fabulous seafood lunch right on the beach at Doyle’s Restaurant, an institution here since the 19^th century. You can see right up the long harbor to the skyline of Sydney in the distance. It’s breathtaking. Our journey back up the Harbor was in both sun and rain. But we stayed aboard to see Darling Harbor and the other sights. Back at Circular Quay we ended our day with gelato, strolling, and just watching the lights come up in Sydney Cove.

Today, as Roger went off to his Australian colleagues at the technical university, I roamed the Royal Botanical Gardens, walking out to Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair, a lookout carved in the rocks for the wife of an early Royal Governor (1810-1821). Thence, just a random walk through the central business area. I find the architecture here so satisfying. It is visually layered, as if through the historical eras. There’s the really fine Victorian buildings of old Sydney, all built of this warm golden brown sandstone and beautifully preserved. There’s the occasional throwback to colonial architecture, even hinting of similarities to the tropics like the Caribbean. And over all, there are the gleaming, handsome skyscrapers and some Art Deco. Add the frequent views of the water and the palm trees and greenery, and it all works together in such a compatible way.

We dine tonight with Roger’s colleagues, then are off to Melbourne in the morning. However, we’ll return here for the weekend. I look forward to it!