Sheets of rain fell the evening some friends took me for dinner at Sydney’s Opera House. The floodlit building, one of the most recognizable in the world, glowed in the darkness, making the massive bulk of the nearby Harbor Bridge look menacing.  The following morning the rain had cleared when I took the ferry from Barangaroo to Circular Quay just for the pleasure of passing under the bridge and seeing the Opera House drying out in the sunshine after the previous day’s flood.

Every visitor to Sydney is pulled towards its glorious harbor.  I’ve been to the city several times and no visit feels complete without a stroll past the Opera House and The Rocks, or a ferry ride to somewhere like Manly.  A massive extension to the Harbor is now underway as the former container port at Barangaroo is redeveloped into a new residential and entertainment district.  Enough of the work has been completed to get a sense of how the place will look overall.  My first impression wasn’t positive – the tall office and apartment buildings looked generic and undistinguished – but I should defer judgement until it’s finished in a year or so.  I hope it works out.  Sydney’s is one of the world’s most beautiful urban waterfronts and the developers are playing with something precious and iconic.

And, just in case you’re interested, that restaurant at the Opera House (Bennelong) was very good.