Going East

Today, we continued our drive up the Eastern coast of Australia.  Today, will end up in Sydney.  This is one of the major cities in Australia, and one of its most famous landmarks is the Sydney Oprah House.  This building has a funny background.  To build, it cost 14 times more than planned.  It ended up being $100,000,000.  That is a lot to mess up, thus the architect, a Danish man, Jørn Utzon, was fired.  Cha-ching Cha-ching Cha-ching.  The project was so complex, that the architect was hired back, in a consulting way, from his home in Denmark.  He died before being able to return to Sydney to see the completed work.  Learning that made me feel a little sad. 

On our way Sydney, we stopped at a winery.  From the front, it looked small, but when we went around back, there were 18 acres of grape vines.  This was fascinating to me, because I guess I expected it to be a lot smaller, even for a tiny, local vineyard.  We even got to meet the owner, a man named Kim.  He let us go in the distillery, which was amazing because there were 2-3 large tanks that were about 15 feet tall, followed by a bunch of 6-foot ones.  There were also oak barrels that lined the walls.  Some of the wines are aged in oak (from the U.S.!) to give them a toasty flavor.  My dad was in heaven, because he really likes learning about different wines.