Opera House

It's almost with a sense of embarrassment at the obvious that I took today's pictures: there can't possibly be an original angle left. The steps of the Opera House were thronging with tourists, but it was less busy than it would have been on a bright sunny day; and the grey skies gave the building a slightly forbidding feel, so that even the Chinese couple having their wedding photos done had a rather forlorn air about them. Danish architect Jørn Utzon, following controversy over the design and escalating costs, left the project in 1966, long before its completion (in 1973, having cost $102m, 14 times its original budget). There are 1,056,006 Swedish tiles cladding the roof.