Same day, same date - that is, Wed 9th. Arrived into Singapore at 6 a.m. It was a bit wet, but I checked the weather forecast and couldn't see why a bit of rain should affect our plans.
We had an 8-hour stopover and had agreed that it wasn't worth going into Singapore itself as it takes an hour to get in, an hour back again and we still had to be at the airport 2-3 hours prior to our flight out at about 2 p.m.
This had left me figuring out how we were to spend the time and give David a taste of Singapore. So we had fun navigating across to the nearby Changi Village which is on the waterfront. We had a few goes at buying our MRT tickets but were successful eventually. Why don't they have machines that can read notes no matter which way you put them in??? Great trains!!
At Tanah Merah station we had to find the bus, but we also had to have change; I had lots from previous trips but it wasn't enough. So we bought water which gave us coin. We enjoyed an interesting drive past some lovely grand, colonial buildings and further on we passed Changi Prison, the perimeter lined with tall fences with razor wire spiralled along the top, all very daunting - and a poignant reminder of the terrible POW Camp here when the Japanese invaded Singapore in WWII.
At Changi Village, we passed a hub of food vendors and made our way to the Changi Point Coastal Walk which is a bit over 2 kms each way. It was quite nice: a lovely beach, pretty trees, parkland, a river inlet, boardwalk, views out over the sea, and the ferry terminal busy with boats coming and going; it was National Day so lots of people out - presumably a public holiday. We saw heaps of bike riders: plenty of serious pelotons along with more casual riders.
It was lightly wet on and off, mostly quite pleasant.
We took another bus to Changi Chapel and Museum which was very moving and interesting. There were lots of wartime artefacts including letters and photos; the famous Changi Murals painted by POW Stanley Warren, lovingly restored; and patchwork quilts created by women internees.
Back to the airport by bus and train and we goofed around after we'd passed through immigration and security getting foot massages for free in the machines lining the walkway to the departure gate.
So, success! We had given the legs a stretch and now we are away on the 2nd leg of the journey: 12 hours to Frankfurt.
The Singapore Airlines service was impeccable, the food very mixed (some of it dreadful) and I didn't find much in the way of movies to amuse the hours away so read the papers. Boy, is CBA in trouble!!
Watched a funny film Going in Style (Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Alan Arkin, Ann Margaret - haven't heard or seen of her for years!). MF2 tells me that he went with Mel to see this at the cinema this year some time
Arrived Frankfurt on time - early in fact by 20 minutes so we were in by 8 p.m.; immigration and security very efficient as was baggage pickup (we ARE in Germany afterall!); and caught our scheduled train to Boppard - MF1 had his usual trouble staying awake which left Dave and me taking it in turns napping and looking out for our station.
There was fortunately only 300 m to walk to the pension (guesthouse in English) - in by 11 p.m.!! The photo shows the boys at the station at Boppard - looking a tad weary.
The pension is very nice and, as arranged, the key was in a key pad near the front door and we had a code to open the key pad. Very good/sehr gut. We enjoyed a very welcome shower and settled in for the night.
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